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The apex planning body of India, NITI Aayog launched an Aspirational District Programme (ADP) in January 2018. The programme aimed to the quick and effective transformation of 112 (14%) districts of the country. This programme is considered as world's biggest result-based governance initiative having reached up to 250 million people. It is based on a ranking that is done on monthly basis. This ranking is based on 49 KPIs across six broad socio-economic themes.

The study attempts to inquire and assess the progress made by 112 Aspirational Districts under Financial Inclusion, Skill Development and Basic Infrastructure theme from the inception of the programme to June 2022 (i.e. 54 months). Instead of ranking districts with delta rank or composite scores, the study divorce from NITI Aayog's methodology of monthly delta ranking. The study explores 8 indicators under the basic infrastructure theme and 16 indicators under the financial inclusion and skill development themes. For this purpose, the study explores the availability of individual household latrines, drinking water, electricity and road connectivity. Districts are also tracked for the number of Internet-connected Gram Panchayats, and panchayats with Common Services. Every district is provided with the target as per national development priority, the study makes an effort to grasp the distance of each district from the national target. This allows researchers to develop a scale Very Far, Far, Near, Very Near, Achieved with descriptive statistics techniques. Juxtaposing the scale with timelines results in a pattern of progress made by these 112 districts.

This study explores the configurations of management control systems (MCSs) while taking into account entrepreneurial cognition styles (ECSs) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The objective is to understand the impact of ECS on deployment and identify the various modes of MCS configurations employed by SMEs. The authors draw on and synthesise two theoretical perspectives relating to cognition and management control packages to understand the associations between ECS and MCS employed by SMEs in managing their business. This study was conducted using a quantitative approach that utilises a questionnaire survey to collect cross-sectional data from 150 SMEs. The authors uncovered three cognitive styles: knowing (e.g. preciseness), planning (e.g. organising), and creativity (e.g. innovativeness). Furthermore, five configurations of MCS utilised by SMEs were identified: customer focus, performance monitoring, administrative focus, strategic focus, and development focus. By combining both analyses, the authors discovered three constellations of significant association between ECS and MCS characterised by Cluster 1’s cohesive integration approach, Cluster 2’s revealing strategic approach, and Cluster 3’s multifaceted exploration. The study is significant because it uncovers the complex relationship between ECS and MCS configurations, highlighting their interdependence within the institutional context. Using a cognitive view, the authors explore how the cognitive styles of entrepreneurs facilitated imprinting institutional context into MCS configurations. These insights enable us to envisage that ECS is not mutually exclusive but forms a continuum that provides more plausible explanations that relax the direct universal relationship between MCS configurations and contextual factors.

Tourists with different cultural backgrounds think and behave differently. Accurately capturing and correctly understanding cultural differences will help tourist destinations in product/service planning, marketing communication and attracting and retaining tourists. This research employs Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory to analyse the variations in destination image perceptions of Chinese-speaking and English-speaking tourists to Xiamen, a prominent tourist attraction in China.

The evaluation utilizes a two-stage approach, incorporating LDA and BERT-BILSTM models. By leveraging text mining, sentiment analysis and t-tests, this research investigates the variations in tourists' perceptions of Xiamen across different cultures.

The results reveal that cultural disparities significantly impact tourists' perceived image of Xiamen, particularly regarding their preferences for renowned tourist destinations and the factors influencing their travel experience.

This research pioneers applying natural language processing methods and machine learning techniques to affirm the substantial differences in the perceptions of tourist destinations among Chinese-speaking and English-speaking tourists based on Hofstede's cultural theory. The findings furnish theoretical insights for destination marketing organizations to target diverse cultural tourists through precise marketing strategies and illuminate the practical application of Hofstede's cultural theory in tourism and hospitality.

This study aims to empirically investigate the pathway to financial management behavioural intentions (FMBI) from Islamic perspectives, through dimensions of Islamic financial literacy (IFL; Islamic financial knowledge [IFK], financial skills [FS] and self-efficacy [SE]) based on an extension to the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model.

Data was collected via a self-administered questionnaire by 300 millennials (Muslims) working in Malaysia. Structural equation modelling was used for data analysis purposes by using SmartPLS.

The results present the positive and significant influence of IFK on financial attitude (FA), FS on the elements of FA, subjective norm (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC) and perceived moral obligation (PMO), SE on FA, FS on the elements of FA, SN and PBC. Furthermore, PBC and PMO were strong predictors of FMBI from an Islamic standpoint.

The findings successfully contribute to the theoretical extension of the TPB model via dimensions of IFL (IFK, FS and SE) as predictors of FA, SNs, PBC and PMO. Besides, this study provides some new insights of millennial Muslims concerning IFL and financial management from Islamic beliefs.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of fashion influencer measures on consumers' purchase intentions and the mediation of attitudes to understand the phenomenon of influencer marketing in the backdrop of the fashion industry.

The present study employs a conceptual model based on extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) with added perceived trust. Data were collected from 341 participants from different regions of the country and analysed using direct path analysis and mediation technique.

The study found that attitudes toward fashion influencers are positively influenced by perceived trust, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. However, perceived behavioural control is not directly related to purchasing intents in the research model. The results confirmed that attitudes have a positive association with purchase intentions both directly and indirectly (partially mediation).

The study advocates market practitioners and advertisers to acknowledge the increasing importance of influencer marketing and the promotion of their fashion offerings in the setting of emerging fashion industry.

The present study adds crucial value to enhance the understanding of fashion influencer marketing in the Indian context. This research offers several insights into the continually growing knowledge domain of influencer marketing by predicting the direct relationships with purchase intents and the mediation of attitudes.

This study reports on changes made within the study, plan, teach and reflect steps of lesson study with pre-service teachers who were learning to teach within a disciplinary literacy course.

Using methods associated with formative experiments and design-based research, this study gathered data over four iterations of the disciplinary literacy course. Data included the course materials, pre-service teachers’ written work, observational notes from research lessons, transcripts of post-lesson discussions and teacher-educators’ analysis sessions and pre-service teachers’ post-program interviews. Data were analyzed within and across iterations.

Initial adjustments to the lesson study process focused on the reflect step, as we learned to better scaffold pre-service teachers sharing of observational data from research lessons. Later adjustments occurred in the study and plan steps, as we refined the design of four-day lesson sequences that better supported pre-service teachers’ attention to disciplinary literacy while providing room for their instructional mentors to provide specific team-based feedback. Adjustments to the teach step included reteaching and more explicit attention to literacy objectives.

This paper contributes to the literature by explicitly applying formative experiment and design-based research methods to the implementation of lesson study with pre-service teachers. Furthermore, it contributes examples of lesson study within a disciplinary literacy context, expanding the examples of lesson study’s applicability across content areas.

The study aims to examine social-psychological beliefs and personality traits and their linkage with driver predispositions and road safety behaviour grounded on notions derived from an integration of the health belief model (HBM) and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) in social marketing.

The study used a cross-sectional survey to gather data from 587 licenced drivers in 3 major urban settlements in Ghana. The theoretical model was tested by using covariance-based structural equation modelling.

The study finds that the effects of perceived benefits, perceived behavioural control, social norms and cues to action on road safety behaviour are direct; the effects of perceived susceptibility, severity and barriers on road safety behaviour are fully mediated by driver attitude towards safe driving. Some of these effects were moderated by conscientiousness and neuroticism.

The findings offer empirical grounds for the development of evidence-based social marketing interventions that leverage efficacy-centred messages, social influence through community-based approaches, informational cues with consistent education and are tailored to the personality traits of drivers with the aim of inducing wilful on-road safety behaviour towards achieving sustainable road safety culture.

This study extends the integrative applicability of the HBM and TPB in understanding road safety behaviour and establishes attitude as a vital facilitator, and personality traits as moderators of the belief-preventive behaviour linkage within a developing country context. It contributes towards the use of theory-based outcomes to enhance the efficacy of social marketing road safety campaigns.

People continue to become more liberated and individualised day by day. They look for ways to somehow get out of any situation that restricts them, tend to get rid of their typical holiday patterns and travel alone, without being stuck within anyone else's borders, precisely as they want. In addition, people can travel alone to discover themselves, meet different cultures, relieve stress and learn new skills. Women travel alone more than men, although they face more difficulties than men. The experiences of women solo travellers suggest that this form of travel can provide a meaningful foundation for advancing gender equality. By challenging gender roles and expectations, empowering women to assert their autonomy and agency and creating opportunities for community-building and solidarity, solo travel can help to transform social norms and promote gender equity.

This chapter aims to build a body of knowledge that will have a widespread impact based on available data on the relationship of women solo travellers to gender equality. It also examines the effects of women solo travellers on gender equality based on secondary data sources. This chapter, designed as conceptual research with descriptive analysis and document analysis, is important in revealing what the indirect gains of women solo travellers can be for gender equality, the fifth of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sustainable Development Goals.

The study explores measures designed explicitly to manage people with disabilities in a context where diversity interventions are incorporated voluntarily. Furthermore, it examines global organizations’ approaches to marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities, in a context where there is an explicit lack of state regulation on diversity measures.

An abductive approach was adopted for the exploratory nature, which sought to understand how global organizations in a developing country utilize diversity management mechanisms to manage people with disabilities.

The findings reveal that human resources departments of international organizations operating in a neoliberal environment demonstrate two distinct perspectives for individuals with disabilities: (i) inclusiveness due to legal pressures and (ii) social exclusion.

We explored global organizations’ approaches to marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities, in the context of an explicit lack of state regulation on diversity measures and showed that the absence of coercive regulation leads to voluntary actions with adverse consequences. The paper expands theories that critique the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in untamed neoliberal contexts and explains how the responsibilization of institutional actors could enhance what is practical and possible for the workplace inclusion of individuals with disabilities. Without such institutional responsibilization, our findings reveal that disability inclusion is left to the limited prospects of the market rationales to the extent of bottom-line utility.

Purpose. Based on the Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT), theory of consumer brand engagement (CBE), and empirical findings, we examine the impact of social media marketing (SMM) on brand awareness (BA), consumer brand engagement (CBE), and purchase intention in emerging economies.

Data were collected in North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Romania, and Ukraine from 1808 social media users, through a self-administered online survey. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used to assess the theoretical model, and a multi-group analysis to explore the differences between countries.

Social media marketing has a positive impact on brand awareness, brand engagement, and purchase intention, while country moderates the relationship between brand engagement and purchase intention. We reveal differences among countries regarding SMM's impact on brand engagement and purchase intention.

The study promotes SM's impact on brand communications, providing consumer insights that help companies design effective SMM strategies, using similarities and differences in emerging economies. The different levels of CBE and their different influences on purchase intention require a focus on the motivations for brand engagement in social media and the type of content preferred by consumers in each country. The originality of our research lies in our examination of the impact of social media marketing on consumer behavior in five emerging countries. Additionally, we are investigating how the country of origin influences the relationship between social media marketing, brand awareness, consumer behavior, and purchase intention in different countries.

The originality of our research lies in our examination of the impact of social media marketing on consumer behavior in five emerging countries. Additionally, we are investigating how the country of origin influences the relationship between social media marketing, brand awareness, consumer behavior, and purchase intention in different countries.