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During the COVID-19 pandemic micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses were hit hard. This was specially so in the restaurant business where physical lockdown and social distancing norms were challenging. Thus, small business performance was a concern (Akpan, Udoh, & Adebisi, 2020). This case study addressed this theoretical aspect. Zhang, Gerlowski, & Acs (2021) had highlighted the challenges of business continuance and enterprise sustenance, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This case study provided insights regarding how these aspects of business continuance and enterprise sustenance were addressed by “Café Tato”. Bhattacharyya and Thakre (2021) had deliberated regarding how firms through strategic initiatives and tactical responses were required to manage COVID-19 pandemic and economic lockdown. Café Tato case study was in line with these recommendations for firms. Barbieri et al. (2020) and Reardon et al. (2021) had outlined steps regarding maintaining business operations reliance given a business crisis situation like during the COVID-19 pandemic. Café Tato case study described this. Café Tato case study accommodated perspectives regarding business crisis situation, business continuance, enterprise sustenance, operations reliance, organizational strategic versus tactical initiatives and finally small business performance.

The teaching case study was written based upon primary data collected from the owners of Café Tato. Furthermore, secondary data was used for building the case.

Café Tato was the most popular and the oldest tea cafés in Goa, India. It had a presence in Panjim and Margaon in Goa. On 24 March 2020 India went into an economic and physical lockdown because of COVID-19 pandemic related crisis. One week down the line on 31 March 2020, Mr Pranav Dhuri (hereby referred as Pranav), one of the owners of Café Tato, was contemplating how to ensure business continuance once there was semi-normalcy restored. What would the initiatives that need to be undertaken was critical for success of Tato the legendary café in Goa was playing in the mind of Pranav.

This teaching case study could be used in the class for strategy planning and implementation in the course of strategic management. This case study could apply for teaching both bachelor’s and master’s students of business management. The case could also be taught to management students for helping them understand how small business firms, while confronting challenges of COVID-19, planned and implemented strategies in the course of strategic management. This study helped strategic management students understand the importance of organization culture in any business as it directly influenced the profitability and sustenance of business. The Dhuri family had all along laid stress on keeping the culture alive by taking various steps at critical times in improvising and maintaining the standards. The study also helped to understand the importance of good leadership and its direct impact on the employees in a crisis situation (COVID-19) work environment and ensure business sustenance.

Strategic Management, Business Ethics.

This case is suitable to be used in advanced undergraduate and MBA/MSc level.

The case accentuates the challenges faced by Geetanjali Woollens in its mechanical recycling business which is proving detrimental to its African business expansion plans. The case is developed from the episodes of divergence in January 2018 when the buyers’ non-acceptance of mechanically recycled products initiated a managerial dilemma between “business sustenance” and “sustainable business” for Geetanjali Woollens. Being associated with the recycling business for more than 25 years, Madhukar Ghosh, the General Manager at Geetanjali Woollen recycling unit, was delving upon practical, supply-chain-wide solutions to generate standard acceptance norms for mechanically recycled textiles. For him, ethical purpose of business existence was equally important as the profit motive. Bringing operational clarity and standardized regulatory framework still seemed a big challenge for international policymakers and torchbearers of environmental responsibility, and Governments and NGOs popularizing green initiatives. Lack of policy guidelines for business behavior was exacerbating the business functioning. Madhukar knew that consistent buyer policies and standard regulatory framework could clear some mist and induce maturity in the concept of circular economy. Some formalizations were expected till the end of December 2018, if the deadlines did not get pushed further.

The objectives of this case are as follows:

• to highlight the limitations that recycled apparel and textile products have and the concerns that emerge for buyers, designers, and consumers, due to these limitations;

• to highlight the myopic business vision with which the recycling business is suffering due to the lack of a formalized regulatory framework, which in turn is creating various system barriers and making recycling business an unattractive proposition;

• to appreciate the contribution of mechanical recycling of post-consumer textile waste as a closed-loop manufacturing technique in recouping the eco-impacts of increased disposal of apparel and textile products; and

• to promote discussions for innovative solutions for limitations and concerns related to substances of concern in the recycling business and deliberations for a more effective tracking of such substances to facilitate buyer acceptance of mechanically recycled products.

to highlight the limitations that recycled apparel and textile products have and the concerns that emerge for buyers, designers, and consumers, due to these limitations;

to highlight the myopic business vision with which the recycling business is suffering due to the lack of a formalized regulatory framework, which in turn is creating various system barriers and making recycling business an unattractive proposition;

to appreciate the contribution of mechanical recycling of post-consumer textile waste as a closed-loop manufacturing technique in recouping the eco-impacts of increased disposal of apparel and textile products; and

to promote discussions for innovative solutions for limitations and concerns related to substances of concern in the recycling business and deliberations for a more effective tracking of such substances to facilitate buyer acceptance of mechanically recycled products.

The Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria are generally acknowledged as traders and astute entrepreneurs. Extant literature has investigated the various indigenous practices of Igbo entrepreneurs that ensure business success. Despite these efforts, knowledge of their financial practices has been limited. This chapter provides insights on the financial practices that are common amongst Igbo micro-entrepreneurs and the immense benefits of the practices. To unravel these practices, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 micro-entrepreneurs involved in supermarket, spare parts and food items businesses in Lagos, Nigeria. Using a grounded theory approach, four significant financial practices such as rotating financial contribution, deferred financial arrangements, financial settlement practice and financial prudence common among the Igbo micro-entrepreneurs were identified. Based on the findings, relevant recommendations were made for financial educators and the management of modern financial institutions to adapt and incorporate some of these indigenous financial practices in teaching curricula and financial product designs.

This study assesses the capability of artificial intelligence integrated customer relationship management (AI-CRM) technology for sustaining family businesses in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also investigates the moderating role of strategic intent in sustaining family businesses in times of crisis.

The authors used dynamic capability view theory and related literature on family business and technology adoption to develop a conceptual model. This model has been validated using the structural equation modeling technique considering 332 usable responses from people of India involved in family businesses and technology adoption. The study also uses multigroup analysis to examine the moderating role of strategic intent.

The study finds that adoption of AI-CRM technology significantly and positively impacts dynamic capabilities of the family businesses, such as sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities, which in turn positively and significantly influences their sustainability during crises. The study also highlights the significant moderating impact of strategic intent for sustaining family business firms in uncertain times.

This study has highlighted the importance for family businesses to adopt AI-CRM technology and its influence on their dynamic capabilities. The study also provides important inputs to the management of family businesses regarding adoption of new technologies and their significance during crises. The study also documents that strategic intent could help family businesses to survive during such times. The study is conducted in India and thus cannot be generalized.

This study table is unique in that it investigates the influence of AI-CRM technology and the moderating role of strategic intent on family business sustainability in times of crisis. Moreover, the proposed theoretical model is a unique model with explanative power of 71%.

COVID-19 pandemic has unprecedentedly shattered the entire world economy and development. Without exclusion, the construction industry has undergone very extreme disruption. Many projects have been suspended, many employees lost their jobs and many construction companies bankrupted. This study aims to explore the possible business continuity plans, a roadmap to recovery and strategies to revive the construction industry after COVID-19.

Mix mode method approach was used to address the research problem, and that includes interviews with 16 selected construction experts who have been working in the Malaysian industry for more than 10 years and a questionnaire with 187 construction practitioners. The aim of conducting the interviews is to get an insight into the current impact of the pandemic on the construction industry, and the questionnaire aims to statistically rank the importance of revival strategies using a Likert-type scale. Further, the data were analysed using a univariate approach by calculating the relative importance index to assess the importance of each strategy.

The findings showed that the pandemic has severely affected the Malaysian construction industry in many aspects and effective restoration strategies are necessary to cope with the changes. The strategies were categorized into four different aspects includes health and practice, technology, operational, legal and governmental strategies. The finding shows that the topmost ranked strategy in terms of importance is introducing COVID-compliant operating procedures and protocols on-site by adjusting current working procedures, urgent government stimuli (loan, financial aid to the affected firms) and other financial incentives, leveraging digital and online technology for virtual meeting and communication, comprehensive and revision study of the health guidelines to suit construction activities and digital transformation of work. The study suggests a more in-depth study to evaluate the impact and assess the success of strategies for the betterment of the future of the Malaysian construction industry.

The study presented a better understanding of the possible business continuity strategies for construction industry revival, which are important for decision makers and the government to reconsider for the revival of the industry. The findings also are of interest to the construction stakeholders.

There have been many research addressing the impact of the pandemic on the construction industry, but less are available on the possible strategies for continual and revival of construction industry amid and after the pandemic. It is, therefore, crucial to address this topic, especially the assessment of these strategies based on their importance.

Emerging construction companies often liquidate due to their inability to institute strategies to handle their business risks. This study investigated the skills and strategies adopted by emerging contractors to overcome business risk factors to make their businesses sustainable.

A qualitative research approach was adopted for the study. Semi-structured interview questions were used to solicit information from emerging contractors within the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Grade one (1) to four (4) in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. The data gathered were analysed using qualitative content analysis to identify the main themes.

The study's findings indicate that emerging contractors face business risk factors that impact their project execution hugely. Thus to overcome these risk factors, they implement various strategies to curtail the risk they encounter in their businesses. These strategies include; human resource management (employing experienced and skilled labour and training of staff); communication management (with other employees about set goals); financial management (effective pricing of tender documents); procurement management (ensuring materials are available as and when necessary in their projects) and quality management (ensuring effective work supervision); among others.

Although the study concentrated on the emerging construction firms in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, the findings may be applicable in other provinces and beyond South Africa.

In order for emerging contractors to prevent the collapse of their businesses, there is the need to be educated on effective project risk management to identify potential business risk, the mirage associated with the notion of the construction business profitability, effective tender pricing and strategic business partnership. These strategies, if well thought, will help sustain their businesses and growth in the construction industry.

The study has identified the management strategies used by emerging contractors to sustain their businesses in the construction industry. Thus, the finding will guide both emerging contractors who are already in the construction business and those planning to enter the construction market.

This paper seeks to present a comparative study of framework, criteria and criterion weighting of 20 Excellence Models/National Quality Awards (EM/NQA), to identify their common features, contradictions and to propose suggestions for development and review of EM/NQA. It also aims to provide some clues to attain sustenance of business results.

This study is based on a literature review using the internet and research databases (Emerald and EBSCO). Nine generic criteria are identified and their relative importance within each model is computed based on scores given to their respective contents in the criteria/sub‐criteria of each EM/NQA. The average relative importance of nine criteria, discussions with experts and the author's own experience helped to visualise the emerging scenario and suggest improvements.

EM/NQA frameworks have different shapes. Most EM/NQA start with the criterion “Leadership” and end with “Results”. Ancient wisdom emphasises that the ultimate goal of business is the wellbeing of society. Although the criteria of EM/NQA are similar, the criterion weighting changes due to external environment and cultural factors. The study classifies nine criteria into core criteria, i.e. the need for survival, internal environment criteria, i.e. differentiators, and goodwill criteria, i.e. ensuring sustainability. The focus on goodwill criteria needs to be enhanced to ensure sustainable business growth.

This study is an attempt to integrate the common learning/contradictions of EM/NQA and provide clues to achieving sustainability. Many EM/NQA custodian websites have limited information in the public domain. A periodic review of models made this study difficult. Future research may focus on studying the impact of criteria weighting in different countries/economic environments to enhance the effectiveness of excellence models.

The study may help the GEM council, custodians and managers to review EM/NQA and develop strategies for sustainable results.

This paper is based on a literature review, the author's own experience, and interaction with experts. It provides an analysis of 20 EM/NQAs, highlights the need for a universally acceptable model, and suggests emerging dimensions of excellence.

The purpose of this study was to ascertain organizational factors that impacted the performance of social enterprises.

For this research study, a structured close-ended survey questionnaire was prepared based upon literature inputs. The data was collected from 370 executives in social enterprises in India. The data was analysed through structural equation modelling.  The data was analysed towards hypothesis development as well as model development explicating the success of social enterprises.

This research study’s findings developed a model towards explicating firm level performance in social enterprises. The antecedent factors were organizational commitment (OC), organizational orientation (OO), employee empowerment (EE) and top management support (TMS). The factor business innovation capability (BIC) was the mediating variable, whereas the firm performance (FP) of social enterprises was the dependent variable. Business innovation creativity had full mediation effect.

In this research study, the variable influencing the performance of social enterprises were ascertained. TMS and EE were independent organizational variables in any social enterprise along with the two organizational factors of OC as well as OO that did matter for enhancement of BIC of social enterprises. BIC had full mediating effect based upon the mentioned factors of OC, organization orientation, EE and TMS, which subsequently manifested in superior social enterprises FP.

Social enterprises had to balance the twin objectives of social good (doing good for society) as well as earning economic benefits for the enterprise.  Given this challenge, social enterprises had to develop an organizational context in which employees were empowered towards undertaking social issues proactively. Furthermore, top management team must provide support for such causes. When this aspect coupled with the presence of OC and OO then in the social enterprise, BIC got developed.  With the presence of BICs, it became easier for social enterprises to undertake innovation that were also socially oriented and led to superior FP.

It has often been observed in developing countries like India that social innovation and entrepreneurial ventures associated with these have become a necessity. However, such ventures often do not to scale up. Hence, its case for business continuance and sustenance have been challenging. This study provided insights regarding the existential aspect of social enterprises in terms of its performance.

This study was one of the first research studies that integrated the factors of OC, OO, EE and TMS in building organizational capability towards innovation in social enterprises. This in turn contributed towards the improvement of FP of social enterprises.

New product development (NPD) is necessary for business sustenance and customer satisfaction. Six Sigma and Design for Lean Six Sigma (DLSS) efficiently employ the repetitive stages for NPD, leading to quality performance and profitability. This study aims to map the quality performance through NPD attributes through the Lean methodology.

The data on NPD were collected from 267 respondents from manufacturing companies to map the relationship between Six Sigma and DLSS for NPD. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to confirm model fit, while structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the empirical data for framework testing. The study included nine variables and fourteen hypotheses identified from the literature.

The statistical results of this study show that NPD attributes such as innovation, marketing, organization, customer, product and technology positively influence the Lean Six Sigma structured improvement process (LSSSIP) and DLSS. Moreover, integrating these attributes in Lean planning enhance quality performance. This empirical investigation's findings indicate that ten of the 14 hypotheses were supported, giving the study a strong foundation.

The data collection was limited to northern India; therefore, the results may not be generalizable to other areas of the world.

NPD involves handling technical issues and factors such as cost, operational bottlenecks, economic changes, competitors' strategy and company policy. This study helps understand the various NPD parameters and their relationship to Lean, which enables an effective NPD implementation strategy.

The current philosophy of NPD calls for a concurrent engineering approach; therefore, the entire organization must be part of this process. This study uses the holistic framework by optimizing NPD with Lean Six Sigma (LSS) principles. The study is unique in that, to date, research does not integrate NPD attributes with the objectives of LSS to develop an efficient NPD implementation strategy.