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The paper discusses the problems encountered in the management and quantitative evaluation of fire risk and safety in a building. Rational methods for obtaining solutions to these problems are provided by non‐deterministic mathematical models rather than deterministic models. This is due to the fact that the occurrence and spread of an accidental (not arson) fire are random phenomena affected by uncertainties caused by several factors. Non‐deterministic models discussed briefly in the paper include simple statistical and probabilistic models, regression methods, probability distributions, fault and event trees and stochastic models. The paper only provides a framework for applying these models to any type of facility. For any type, it may be necessary to modify these techniques, collect all the relevant data and perform the analyses to derive results and conclusions applicable to that type.

Building a quality teaching force depends fundamentally upon attracting suitable candidates into teaching. This translates into transparent and clear policies and procedures for recruitment and transfers. Teacher recruitment and transfer are significant aspects of teacher management in Indian states because of the size and the differences that exist in different locations, in terms of facilities including access to health care services, higher educational institutions, and also transport and mobility. The presence or absence of these facilities and services determine the perceived quality for teachers, especially as it also determines their and the family members’ (including spouse and children) ability to access education, health care, or job market. This makes the recruitment and transfer policy a critical aspect of teacher management that contributes significantly to the motivation and job satisfaction of the teacher. Karnataka was able to make progress on designing and implementing transparent and effective teacher recruitment and transfer policies and move away from a system plagued by the weaknesses exhibited by other states. This chapter undertakes a historical analysis of teacher recruitment and transfers in the state, examines the determinants that led to current policies and an examination of the on-going changes since the policy was first introduced. Using Karnataka’s example, it argues that effective and efficient teacher management systems can lead to better teacher quality.

This paper introduces a conceptual framework to assess the foreign market entry behavior of emerging market multinationals (EMMs). By introducing strategic cognition as the underlying theoretical perspective, this paper postulates that different levels of institutional voids in home markets shape the strategic cognition of EMMs, influencing their market entry behavior due to the prevalence of organizational imprinting in the early stages of internationalization. The paper aims to contribute to the strategic cognition literature by introducing emerging markets as a relevant context in which to apply and extend current thinking. Additionally, it aims to contribute to the institutional voids literature by providing a cognitive framework of behavioral patterns that is rationalized by institutional voids. Finally, the paper contributes to the entry mode literature by proposing strategic cognition as a relevant moderator for foreign entry mode choices, particularly those of EMMs.

This study aims to identify the benefits and costs of participation in small group consumption communities (SGCCs), and understand how benefits and costs experienced in these communities differ from those experienced in large group consumption communities (LGCCs).

Thematic analysis of data collected through multi-method approach comprising depth-interviews, participant observation of community events and online community forums was used to identify benefits and costs of SGCC participation.

Eight benefits and three costs of SGCC participation were identified. While some benefits and costs were found to be similar to those identified in LGCCs earlier, their experience and manifestation was found to differ significantly in SGCCs.

Data were collected from SGCCs located in India (collectivist culture). Hence, findings may not be reflective of individualist cultures.

Understanding that benefits and costs of community participation are experienced differently in SGCCs and LGCCs may be useful input for managers wanting to seed/nurture consumption communities. By increasing benefits and reducing costs, managers can transform communities into vibrant social systems, and thereby improve members’ engagement and involvement.

Of the eight benefits identified in the study, two benefits – Escape and Meaningful Engagement are identified for the first time. The study also explores costs of SGCC participation (an area hitherto under explored) in detail. In addition, the study illustrates how some of the benefits despite being seemingly similar in SGCCs and LGCCs are inherently different.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the likely determinants of the demand for official international reserves (hereafter reserves) for India and China in the long run in a basic buffer stock model. The paper also examines the role of domestic money market disequilibrium in the short-run demand for official reserves for both the countries in a dynamic synthesis model.

The study used quarterly data for the time period 1993:Q1–2015:Q4. The long-run model is being estimated by following the Frenkel–Jovanovic (1981) buffer stock model and includes the determinants such as transaction motive variable (GDP or Imports), opportunity cost variable (domestic interest rate), precautionary motive variable (volatility of reserves) and exchange rate. The study also examined the role of domestic money market disequilibrium in addition to the above variables in the short-run reserve demand model. The money market disequilibrium term is expected to be negative and significant in the short run. The study employed autoregressive distributed lag bound testing approach to co-integration and unrestricted error-correction model (UECM) approach developed by Pesaran et al. (2001) for estimating the long-run and short-run models, respectively.

The co-integration test suggests the existence of long-run relationship between international reserves and its determinants. In the long run, all the variables are statistically significant with expected sign, except domestic interest rate variable for China. It is also found that, the money market disequilibrium term in the short run is negative and significant which validates that an excessive money demand (supply) induces an inflow (outflow) of international reserves for both India and China with a lag of four quarters. The recursive residual tests (CUSUM and CUSUMSQ) confirm the stability of both long-run and short-run reserve demand models.

The findings and policy implications of this study may be useful for the policy makers of the similar emerging economies for designing money and currency policies.

This paper is a comparative study which systematically analyzed the reserve demand behavior of the two emerging economies India and China. The study integrates the domestic money market with the international reserve demand behavior for these two economies.

In recent years, school districts have faced numerous questions surrounding accommodations of transgender students. Strong objections to accommodations have been voiced in public argument and litigation, primarily in the areas of athletics, bathrooms, and dress codes. As younger transgender students express their gender identity at school, however, the existing objections are weakened by considering the context of elementary rather than high school students. Greater numbers of young transgender students will likely encourage accommodation of trans students of all ages, as well as challenge the gender binary unconsciously taught in school.

In the developing field of nano-materials synthesis, copper oxide nanoparticles (NPs) are deemed to be one of the most significant transition metal oxides because of their intriguing characteristics. Its synthesis employing green chemistry principles has become a key source for next-generation antibiotics attributed to its features such as environmental friendliness, ease of use and affordability. Because they are more environmentally benign, plants have been employed to create metallic NPs. These plant extracts serve as capping, stabilising or hydrolytic agents and enable a regulated synthesis as well.

Organic chemical solvents are harmful and entail intense conditions during nanoparticle synthesis. The copper oxide NPs (CuO-NPs) synthesised by employing the green chemistry principle showed potential antitumor properties. Green synthesised CuO-NPs are regarded to be a strong contender for applications in the pharmacological, biomedical and environmental fields.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the anticancer potential of CuO-NPs plant extracts to isolate and characterise the active anticancer principles as well as to yield more effective, affordable, and safer cancer therapies.

This review article highlights the copper oxide nanoparticle's biomedical applications such as anticancer, antimicrobial, dental and drug delivery properties, future research perspectives and direction are also discussed.

This study is to propose a more effective and efficient analytic methodology based on within-site clickstream associated with path visualization to explore the channel dependence of consumers' latent shopping intent and the related behaviors, with which in turn to gain insight concerning the interactivity between webpages.

The primary intention of the research is to design and develop a more effective and efficient approach for exploring the consumers' latent shopping intent and the related behaviors from the clickstream data. The proposed methodology is to use text-mining package, consisting of the combination of hierarchical recurrent neural networks and Hopfield-like neural network equipped with Laplacian-based graph visualization to visualize the consumers' browsing patterns. Based on the observed interactivity between webpages, consumers' latent shopping intent and the related behaviors can be understood.

The key finding is to evidence that consumers' latent shopping intent and related behaviors within website depend on channels the consumers click through. The accessing consumers through channels of paid search and display advertising are identified and categorized as goal-directed and exploratory modes, respectively. The results also indicate that the effect of the content of webpage on the consumer's purchase intent varies with channels. This implies that website optimization and attribution of online advertising should also be channel-dependent.

This is important for the managerial and theoretical implications: First, to uncover the channel dependence of consumer's latent shopping intent and browsing behaviors would be helpful to the attribution of the online advertising for the sales promotion. Second, in the past, webmasters did not understand users' preferences and make decisions of reorganization purely on the user's browsing path (sequential page view) without appraising psychological perspective, that is, user's latent shopping intent.

This study is the first to explore the channel dependences of consumer's latent shopping intent and the related browsing behaviors through within-site clickstream associated with path visualization. The findings are helpful to the attribution of the online advertising for the sales promotion and useful for webmasters to optimize the effectiveness and usability of their websites and in turn promote the purchase decision.

This article analyses the welfare implications of the customs unions in the presence of multinational corporations for a less than fully employed small open economy. The traditional two‐sector model, with a specific factor for the multinational corporation, is employed for this purpose. This article suggests that both trade creations I and II improve the social welfare and employment of the small open economy if the multinational sector is relatively capital‐intensive. However, the welfare and the employment effects of trade diversion I are ambiguous whereas trade diversion II affects employment level negatively. These results are in contrast with the previous studies on the theory of customs unions.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of working capital efficiency (WCE) and its components on the composite financial performance of a sample of Indian firms.

Our sample includes 796 non-financial listed firms from 2015–16 to 2021–22. Sample firms’ profitability, liquidity, solvency, cash flow management, and financial and operational leverage have been used to classify them into companies with high composite financial performance (HCFP) and with low composite financial performance (LCFP) by using K-Means Clustering technique. A composite financial performance score (CFPS) of 1 has been assigned to HCFP and 0 to LCFP. We have used logistic regression models with fixed effect to estimate the effect of cash conversion cycle (CCC) and its components, i.e. inventory days, accounts receivable days and accounts payable days on CFPS in the presence of control variables such as growth, leverage, firm size, and age.

The study finds that CCC and inventory days are inversely associated with CFPS. This finding shows that the firms’ WCE leads to superior financial performance on a composite basis.

The research findings are based on samples drawn from the population of the listed Indian non-financial companies. Since the operation, financial practices, working capital policies, and management styles of firms vary greatly among nations, the results of this study should be extended to firms in other countries after taking into account the degree of resemblance to the sample firms.

The findings of this study hold significant value for industry practitioners, as they provide guidance in determining the optimal allocation of funds for working capital and devising strategies for effectively managing inventory levels, credit sales, and vendor payments in order to increase the overall value of the company. This study aims to help investors in building their investment portfolios by identifying companies with superior composite financial performance. Investors can enhance the construction of their investment portfolios by strategically selecting companies that demonstrate superior overall performance.

The results of our study will help companies improve their WCM strategies to enhance their overall value, and their significance increases manifold during economic downturns. Business firms that perform well by efficiently managing their working capital have a multiplier effect on the economy and society at large in the form of GDP contribution, labor income, taxes to the government, investment in capital assets, and payments to suppliers.

To understand the impact of WCE on firms’ performance, the extant working capital literature focuses on some specific characteristics such as profitability, valuation, solvency, and liquidity. The limitation of employing a single parameter is its inability to present the comprehensive performance evaluation of firms. This study is among the earliest studies that focus on the holistic evaluation of WCE's impact on the composite performance of a company.