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Reviews previous research on dividend policy, most of which is US‐based, and presents a worldwide study of the relationship between dividend payout, agency costs, market risk and investment opportunities. Finds that the dividend payout ratio is significantly negatively related to institutional ownership of a firm’s shares (i.e. agency costs) and its beta value (i.e. market risk) but independent of investment decisions. Discusses consistency with other research, recognizes that other factors are also likely to influence dividend policy and calls for further research.

Reviews the literature on economies of scale and scope in savings and loan institutions and uses 1980‐1987 US data to explore the cost effects of simultaneous production of outputs (mortgage loans, other loans and deposits), the impact of size and product‐specific economies of scale. Includes interest as a non‐operating cost and divides the sample into four groups based on asset values. Shows that total costs rose faster than assets, deposits or loans over the period; that there are product‐specific diseconomies of scale for deposits and loans‐ and that economies of scope were made by the larger firms following deregulation.

There is an ongoing controversy over whether or not to extend commercial banks' nonbanking powers. Although the Glass‐Steagall Act of 1933 and the McFadden‐Pepper Act of 1927 restrict commercial banks' activities, the technological and financial innovations of the last several years have raised new questions. Whether banks should be allowed to undertake nonbanking activities? How profitable are these businesses? Whether banks will gain monopolistic powers? Will they increase FDIC's liabilities? And several other related questions. This study looks at the nonbanking activities of bank holding companies using a relatively new data source, i.e. FR‐Y11AS reports for the years 1989 and 1990. The performance of nonbanking subsidiaries is then compared with that of commercial banks and bank holding companies. Some meaningful inferences are drawn on issues such as market concentration, profitability, capitalization, and level of problem‐loans of nonbanking and banking subsidiaries, as well as, consolidated bank holding companies. Results from two prior studies are further utilized to look for possible trends. Since these studies have used the same data source (FR‐Y11Q and FR‐ Yl1AS) for the years 1986 through 1988, this facilitates a trend analysis over a five year period 1986–90. The main conclusions are that the BHC's nonbanking activities are heavily concentrated among the top five or ten firms within each activity. However, both the number of firms as well as total assets held in most nonbanking subsidiaries have declined over the five year period. Activities considered traditional, e.g. commercial and consumer finance and mortgage banking have suffered significant losses in terms of total assets and number of firms. Some interesting conclusions can be drawn from these results. First, due to the growing liberalization in interstate banking laws, BHCs can now carry on these activities in their bank subsidiaries and do not have to acquire a nonbanking subsidiary in order to capture business across state lines. Second, the glass walls separating banking from commerce may be cracking. Several states have started allowing banks to carry out some of the nonbanking activities, hence, considerably neutralizing the Glass‐Steagall Act. Insurance agencies and underwriting business of BHCs show the most significant growth over the five years, 1986–1990. Securities brokerage has held constant. Another finding is that the return on equity (ROE) for nonbanking firms has been lower than both the banking firms as well as the BHCs. However, this is mainly due to the relatively low equity capital levels for banks and BHCs. The nonbanking subsidiaries show fairly stable and relatively high capital ratios. Finally, for most part, nonbanking subsidiaries have a higher rate of problem‐loans.

This study provides evidence regarding the performance of bank holding companies (BHC) following a series of deregulatory measures by the United States Congress. To compare performance of commercial banks before and after expanding their operations to nonbank functions, a set of hypotheses addressing BHC risk and return characteristics are proposed. Empirical results are mixed. Total risk dropped after expansion. Market risk, on the other hand, rose substantially in post‐expansion time. When returns are adjusted for risk, a marginal improvement in performance is achieved.

The paper aims to identify key human and operational focused barriers to the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM). It develops a comprehensive structural relationship between various barriers to successfully implement TQM for sustainability in Indian organizations.

With the help of expert opinions and extant literature review, we identified the case of TQM failure companies and barriers to implement TQM effectively. Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and fuzzy MICMAC techniques are employed to develop a structural model and the identified barriers are categorized based on their dependence and driving power in the various categories.

From the intensive case analysis, we identify fourteen barriers that constrain the successful implementation of TQM. The findings also provide a hierarchy of barriers in which the absence of top management involvement and ineffective leadership are the human barriers having the highest dependence.

The critical inputs show the implementation of TQM in the firms being more proactive and well prepared in the selected five companies. The study's emphasis on barriers will help organizations in implementing TQM for better sustainability in an organizational context.

In the successful implementation of TQM, barriers need to be identified because failure has often eliminated the organizations from the market. Thus, TQM is the source of strength to achieve higher productivity, profitability, and sustainable business performance. The barriers must be identified to improve organizational performance to contribute to sustainable development.

The subject area is operations management.

The case is to be used at master’s level, for example, MBA courses on operations management, operations research, logistics management and supply chain management.

It was the morning of 20 September 2012 and the three directors of Distromed Bioclean Pvt. Ltd. were in the office discussing the developments from past night’s meeting with the Rajkot Chapter of the Indian Medical Association. They are a bio-medical waste treatment facility involved in collection, treatment and disposal services and charge yearly subscription fees. On 13 September 2012, fuel prices had gone up consecutively for the second year. Last year, the doctors resisted the fee hike and seemed reluctant this year again. In response, management of the company was looking for ways to minimize the total distance travelled by its fleet to reduce the operating cost.

The paper enables illustration of concepts of routing/scheduling and generation of optimal solutions in a realistic setting; and developing the understanding regarding the travelling salesman problem, Chinese postman problem and the entire family of vehicle routing problems and vehicle scheduling problems.

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CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

In present research work, the effects of rotational speed, feed rate and vibration amplitude have been investigated during novel method of ultrasonic-assisted bone grinding. During dissection of tumors, firstly a bone flap is removed near the target region to create passage for grinding burr. During abrasion, heat is produced, which sometimes increases the temperature to unsafe levels. So, efforts have been made to limit the temperature below the threshold levels of osteonecrosis during bone grinding.

The temperature produced during osteotomy has been measured using infrared thermography camera during the implementation of L18 Taguchi orthogonal array design. Subsequently, main effect plots and contour plots have been presented to analyze and visualize the effect of grinding parameters on temperature rise during bone grinding. Furthermore, the process parameters have been optimized for optimum results for response characteristics using Taguchi SN ratio-based optimization methodology. For multiobjective optimization, the process parameters are further optimized using grey relational analysis.

It is revealed that all three process parameters substantially affect the response characteristics. The proposed optimization methodology is successfully applied on the experimental findings and the optimum results for change in temperature are found to be rotational speed = 3,000 rpm, feed rate = 20 mm/min, amplitude = 10 µm and for standard deviation are 5,000 rpm, 60 mm/min, 10 µm.

The present research findings cannot be generalized, and researchers are encouraged to further investigate the proposed rotary ultrasonic-assisted bone grinding at higher rotational speed up to 60k rpm on the skull bone.

The research on osteotomy is still at its initial phase, and continuous research is carried out for making patients’ life comfortable. In this direction, the authors have proposed a novel osteotomy method to limit the temperature below the threshold limit of osteonecrosis. The outcomes of the present study will be beneficial for the neurosurgeons working in this field.

This paper examines India’s tryst with welfare/dis-fare with a specific focus on Modi Sarkar's (2014–2019) dirigiste style reforms. In the welfare regime research, Esping-Andersen (1990) classified advanced economies into three ideal-types of liberal, conservative-corporatist and social-democratic welfare states by government-led welfare provisions and levels of decommodification. The classical typology discussions include countries such as India which is classified as informal-insecurity regime due to a large informal economy with no social security for workers. Based on theoretical standpoints of the political economy of welfare states, comparative historical institutionalism and critical junctures this article examines Modifare has expanded formal welfare to its citizens.

The article uses crisp-set analysis to examine the social policy developments under Modi's regime in India.

This paper examines if the centre-right Modi government did bring about a radical departure from UPA I and II lacklustre welfare approach to the more strategic use of welfare reforms as a political weapon on a national scale. It concludes that Modi-fare falls short in being transformatory.

The article is an original contribution to the field of comparative welfare regimes.

Changes are inevitable in risky and uncertain business environments of today’s volatile supply chains. The concept of flexibility originates from this need to mitigate the ill-effects of risks and uncertainty in supply chains. In this paper, an attempt is made to present an exhaustive review on supply chain flexibility (SCF) and its implementation to gain strategic advantages.

A citation analysis method is employed in this paper to discuss, analyse and apprehend the conceptual, empirical, analytical and simulation studies done in this field. In this paper, about 110 papers on flexibility from many reputed journals are examined to study and assimilate various aspects of flexibility.

SCF embraces a unified process-based view including the core processes such as procurement, sourcing, distribution and logistics and mitigates uncertainty or risks involved. The review helps to assimilate the key knowledge about relevant practices in SCF and helps to draw implementing strategies while offering managerial insight on the subject.

Citation and co-citation analysis is done to review the SCF literature. Efforts are made to investigate relevant papers from various journals regarding its ability to mitigate risk or aid in making strategic decision. The study, however, is limited to certain industries in the papers as per chosen approach here. The strategies described in here may further be verified by the researchers and practitioners pertaining to their study or industries focused.

It provides managerial insight for practitioners on how to use flexibility within the firm and across supply chain while considering various trade-offs.

This paper is unique as a review paper, as it encompasses various kinds of studies done on SCF from conceptual models to mathematical models. Further, it briefs with the current practices in industries/SC towards being flexible. It talks of various trade-offs in pursuit of flexibility and concludes while suggesting numerous research gaps and opening new dimensions for SCF research. It offers many managerial and academic implications.