Search results

This paper aims to present an improvement to the power quality of the grid by using a colliding body optimization (CBO) based proportional-integral (PI) compensated design for a grid-connected solar photovoltaic-fed brushless DC motor (BLDC)-driven water pumping system with a bidirectional power flow control. The system with bidirectional power flow allows driving the pump at full proportions uninterruptedly irrespective of the weather conditions and feeding a grid when water pumping is not required.

Here, power quality issue is taken care of by the optimal generation of the duty cycle of the voltage source converter. The duty cycle is optimally generated by optimal selection of the gains of the current controller (i.e. PI), with the CBO technique resulting in a nearly unity power factor as well as lower total harmonic distortion (THD) of input current. In the CBO technique, the gains of the PI controller are considered as agents and collide with each other to obtain the best value. The system is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink and validated in real time with OPAL RT simulator, OP5700.

It was found that the power quality of grid using the CBO technique has improved much better than the particle swarm optimization and Zeigler–Nichols approach. The bidirectional flow of control of VSC allowed for optimum resource utilization and full capacity of water pumping whatever may be weather conditions.

Improved power quality of grid by optimally generation of the duty cycle for the proposed system. A unit vector tamplate generation technique is used for bidirectional power transfer.

Graphene, which has abundant availability in nature, is currently under research for its functional applications in the field of textiles. The sp² Hybridized 1-atom-thick planar sheet has been under consideration for its unique electrical, mechanical and thermal properties, but there exists a void for aggregated data on the findings of other co-functional properties attained by the material using graphene oxide (GO) finish. This paper aims to define the techniques of extraction of GO, method of its application on textile material followed by detailed evaluation of the differential functional properties achieved.

The methodology used to explain the multiple functionalities of GO finish have been carried out by starting with the chemistry of graphene and the isolation of GO from graphite, followed by the techniques for its application on the textile along with the study on the induced functional properties that may aid to increase its potential applications.

It has been observed that with the aid of optimization of GO finish, the finish in lieu with the conductive potentialities may further provide with many essential properties such as hydrophobicity, ultraviolet protection and antibacterial property.

The field of research on GO finish is naive and except few properties, many functionalities are still unexplored that may enable its smooth production, handling and expanding its area of application. The agglomeration of scattered findings on the achievable functional properties of GO on various textiles has been achieved in this paper.

This paper aims to study the organisation and management of grey literature (GL) to select social science libraries. Further, the study is an attempt to make known the types of GL; extent of demand and the frequency of use of GL; GL collection in other languages; workshops or training programmes or seminars for GL; bibliographic control for GL, etc., in select social science libraries.

A survey with the help of a questionnaire followed by interviews was conducted among the social science libraries understudy to explore the issues and challenges involved in organizing and managing GL.

The study finds that 83.3% of libraries have a separate wing for the management of GL and the majority of the GL acquired by the library are accessed through compact disc and are present in digital form access via online public access catalog.

The paper explores the organisation and management of GL by social science libraries, which is a unique study on its own as the management of GL is not much popular here in India. The study paves the path for more issues to be explored in the area i.e. GL.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between perceived investments in employees’ development (PIED) on work engagement and the moderating effects of psychological capital on this relationship for liquid knowledge workers, employed in the Indian cutting and polishing of diamond industry (CPD).

A questionnaire composed of established scales was administered to 134 liquid knowledge workers. Having established convergent and discriminant validity using structural equation modelling, the model was further analysed using the Process macro to check for direct and moderating effects.

The research findings suggest that the perceived investment in employee development and psychological contract enhancement (relational and transactional) made by CPD units for liquid knowledge workers positively influenced their work engagement level. The study also finds that relational contract (not transactional contract) positively moderates the relationship between perceived investment in employee development and work engagement.

This is a cross-sectional single source study; future studies could look at longitudinal and multisource perspective.

The study presents a “star matrix of engagement” that guides the application of the two strategies of perceived employee development and psychological contract enhancement for liquid knowledge workers. This has implications for design and implementation of human resource management practices and policies for employee management.

The study makes significant contributions to existing literature on antecedents of work engagement of liquid knowledge workers by examining the direct and moderating influences.

The Government of India is proposing the setting up of several new smart cities in the sub-continent. Being an over-populated country, space is at a premium. In congested areas high-rise buildings afford a solution. The purpose of this paper is to present new research involving architecture and computational fluid dynamics (CFDs) must be done at the screening stage of design plans before new cities are laid out. This is achieved in the present study involving a university residential campus with a population of 29,000 comprising of an assortment of high-rise buildings in complex terrain.

This paper uses a combination of instrument-fitted drone measurements – (equipped with a barometer, and sensors for obtaining temperature, relative humidity and altitude) along with a computational fluid dynamical analysis to yield deep insights into the ventilation patterns around an assortment of building forms.

This study was conducted in a residential complex in the campus of the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) India. Based on the deciphered wind velocity pattern, a human thermal comfort study was also conducted. It was concluded that the orientation of the buildings play a pivotal role in enhancing the ventilation rates inside a building. It was observed that a dominant eddy spanning a radius of approximate 34 meters was responsible for much of the air changes within the rooms – the smaller eddies had an insignificant role. This method of ascertaining eddy structures within a study area comprising of an assortment of buildings is essential for accurate prescriptions of glazing ratios on building facades.

The main research implications pertain to the use of smart ventilation methods in built up environments. The study shows how large eddies drive the momentum transfer and the air changes per hour with rooms in high-rise buildings in complex terrain. In monsoon-driven flows, there are well set preferred directions of wind flow and this enables the characterization of the fully eddy structure in the vicinity of tall buildings. Another research implication would be the development of new turbulence closure models for eddy structure resolution for flow around complex building forms.

This study introduces a novel protocol at the planning stage of the upcoming residential complexes in proposed smart cities in the sub-continent. The results may well inform architects and structural engineers and help position and orient buildings in confined spaces and also ascertain the optimal glazing ratio, which affects the ventilation pattern.

The results from this study can be used by town planners and architects in urban conurbations in the developing world. The results may well help lower heating ventilation and airconditioning loads. Energy-efficient buildings in developing countries are necessary because most of these have rapidly growing GDPs with a concomitant increase in energy consumption.

This novel study combining instrument mounted drone and CFDs shows for the first time how architects and town planners with a limited budget position and orient a group of buildings in a complex terrain.

The case has the following learning objectives: to understand the dilemmas that an emerging market MNC faces during pre-and post-acquisition scenarios; understand and appreciate the basic tensions that arise when two different companies with different cultural setups are integrated; understand the importance of creating a culture integration road map to leverage the synergies of two successful companies; and understand the role of leadership in leading and managing change.

Asian Paints Ltd. has been a market leader in the Indian paint market for over five decades (since 1967). Over the years, starting in 1978, the company has steadily spread its footprint in the international arena as well. As of 2017, Asian Paints was a leader in 10 overseas markets, one of the top 3 paint companies in the Middle East, the largest paint manufacturing company in South Asia, and served 60 markets across the world. The international business contributed to around 12% of the company’s group turnover. In line with its long-term vision and to consolidate its presence in emerging markets, the company acquired Causeway Paints, a leading paint company in Sri Lanka, in April 2017. Asian Paints had a presence in Sri Lanka since 1999. Mr. Jatin Upadhyay, International Business Unit Head for Asian Paints, had played significant roles in the past in such acquisitions and was well aware of the impending challenges that came with such acquisitions. How would the integration of the two distinct entities be made possible without losing the overarching objective? How would the transition be managed? How would the cultural transition take place? What and how would the role be handled by the General Manager (GM) of Causeway Lanka? How would the new organisational structure support the transition? The case illustrates the complex management challenges that arise when a leading enterprise from a different country (Asian Paints) acquires a leading company in a different country, in this case, Causeway Paints, Sri Lanka.

The target audience for this case study is the students pursuing a post-graduate programme in management or an executive post-graduate programme in management. The case can also be used for management development programmes for experienced participants who are interested in understanding the possible scenarios that may arise after an acquisition when managing an international subsidiary in a different cultural setting.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

While prior studies have highlighted the brighter side of technology adoption in improving human resource (HR) functions, the dark side pertaining to the adoption of technology in people management within organizations has gone relatively unnoticed. The current study tries to demystify the dark side of electronic human resource management (e-HRM) by examining banking institutions in India which are believed to have undergone several transformations in recent years.

This study adopts an inductive qualitative approach to examine the research problem. In total, 53 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the employees of eight public sector banks in India. The interviews were transcribed. The analysis of the data was done using the thematic analysis technique.

The findings of the study suggest that there is a stratification of the workplace in banking institutions into digital natives and digital migrants. This social stratification is based on technology adoption and usage which has further created problems in the form of knowledge hiding and perceived workplace conflicts.

The findings of the current study have important theoretical and managerial implications. It not only extends the current scholarship on the transtheoretical model of change but it also has strong managerial implications as it highlights the need for the adoption of customized e-HRM training curriculums for the workforce based on their age, education, work experience and expertise.

Current research on the dark side of e-HRM is inadequate. Furthermore, the evolution of banking institutions from being a typical bureaucratic organization into a hybrid one has not been examined in the context of e-HRM.

The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between Social and Environmental Accountability (SEA), Attitude towards Environmental Advertising (AEA), Materialism, and Intention to purchase Environmentally Sustainable Products (IPESP).

The study sample consists of 205 business students from two B schools in India. Data was collected through the survey method, and the moderated-mediation model was statistically tested using SPSS Process Macro software.

The findings of the study suggest that the attitude towards social and environmental accountability (SEA) is positively associated with the intention to purchase environmentally sustainable products (IPESP). Moreover, this relationship is mediated and moderated by AEA and materialism, respectively.

The findings of the study reveal that a consumer with low materialism and a positive attitude for both environmental sustainability and environmental advertising has higher chances of purchasing environmentally sustainable products.

This study contributes to the existing literature on sustainability by providing a basis for understanding the moderated-mediation mechanism, which affects the relationship between SEA and IPESP; two key variables that have not been examined in combination.

The purpose of this study is to comprehend the efficiency levels of the Indian textile industry and also its sub-sectors in the light of changing global and national business environment. It is imperative to study the efficiency levels of textile industry for an emerging economy like India, where the industry contributes up to 13 per cent in export earnings, 10 per cent in total industrial production and 2 per cent in gross domestic product (GDP). The study holds an important place in the wake of phasing out of the quota regime existing under the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) and the rising competition being faced from countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia.

The present study attempts to have an in-depth analysis of the efficiency levels in the Indian textile industry using meta-frontier data envelopment analysis, which is a non-parametric linear programming based frontier technique.

The findings highlight that the Indian textile industry is inefficient and has a huge scope of improvement in terms of efficiency. It also confirms the existence of different production functions among the sub-sectors of the industry. Among the different sub-sectors, the proximity of production frontier of readymade garments is the closest to meta-frontier followed by cotton and blended yarn, man-made fibre, cloth and others.

The findings bear strong implications for the policymakers in their attempt to regain the lost competitive position of the Indian textile industry and to enhance its contribution in the economy. As per the findings, policymakers should target the relatively inefficient sub-sectors of textile industry (cloth, man-made fibre, cotton and blended yarn) to infuse more efficiency in these sectors to enhance the market share of the Indian textile industry in the global textiles market.

The current study is a unique addition to the sparse literature on managing efficiencies in the textile industry, particularly of emerging economy like India. Looking at the methodological and geographical coverage of the previous work, it was found that no study has explored and analysed the efficiencies of the sub-sectors in the Indian textile industry using meta-frontier analysis. Therefore, this study will be the first of its kind which seeks to fill such gaps and intends to enrich the available literature.

Consumers’ lifestyle and financial decision-making affects their overall well-being. This paper aims to explore the factors that motivate consumers to pursue the goal of financial independence and retiring early (FIRE).

Qualitative netnography was used to analyze FIRE-related discussions by FIRE-specific online communities. The findings were triangulated using inputs from in-depth interviews with 13 financial advisors.

Using conservation of resources as a theoretical lens, two factors were found to be the primary motivators driving FIRE attitude and subsequent adoption of FIRE behavior – “escapism & freedom from the current workplace & life space” and “concern for physical & mental well-being.” Four factors were found to influence the adoption of FIRE attitude and behavior: “individual characteristics” [do-it-yourself (DIY) and proactive attitude, the capability of frugal living and ability to plan, track, and review], “well-paying job,” “support from spouse” and “resistance from social groups.”

Due to the nature of netnography, demographic details of the sample cannot be completely ascertained.

The findings suggest marketing strategies primarily to wealth managers for: shifting to need-based segmentation of FIRE participants, modifying offerings to involve co-creation and low-touch products, innovating pricing models, increasing distribution reach through digitization and increasing sales and lead generation through engagement.

This is one of the first studies to explore the factors driving the adoption of FIRE by general FIRE consumers and presents a conceptual model.