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The main goal of the paper is to study the effect of intimate partner violence on wives' participation in adopting modern contraceptive as a method of family planning in India.

The authors' analysis uses data from the NFHS‐III (2005‐2006) based on a nationally representative sample of 109,041 households, and 124,385 women (15‐49 years). The sample covers 99 percent of India's population living in all 29 states. Both bivariate and multivariate techniques have been used to analyze data. The bivariate analysis in the form of scatter diagram has been used to examine the association between “use of modern contraceptive” and “spousal violence”, while multivariate analysis in the form of logistic regression has been carried out to assess this association after controlling other variables.

The study reveals that spousal violence negatively affects wives' participation in adoption of modern contraceptive, but that their knowledge of contraceptive, religion, and level of women empowerment should be taken into account as well. Women with higher knowledge about contraceptive have been found to use more modern contraceptive. Muslim women have relatively lower modern contraceptive prevalence rate and they have an inclination for traditional methods. Similarly, modern contraceptive prevalence is lower among women who enjoy relatively higher empowerment. In fact, it has been found from the study that women empowerment has a high positive correlation with traditional contraceptive prevalence rate.

This paper is the first attempt at examining the association between spousal violence and contraceptive behaviour in India on a national basis covering every corner of the country. The findings of the study clearly stress the importance of spousal violence prevention measures as supplemental to family planning measures. However, it will be erroneous to assume that mere passing of bills in the parliament and making laws will solve the problem which is deeply rooted in the society.

This paper aims to analyse the relationship between exports and non-export gross domestic product (GDP) in the context of Indian economy during 1988-2012. It considers export both at aggregate and disaggregated levels to examine whether export-led growth (ELG) hypothesis is sensitive to types of goods India exports.

The OLS-based autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model has been employed to analyse the potential long-run equilibrium relationship. Further, the error correction model within the ARDL framework is applied to examine the short-run and long-run causal relationship between non-export GDP, export and other variables. The study is based on secondary data.

The study indicates that at aggregate level, exports do not have any significant impact on output of non-export sector, and therefore, it is maintained that ELG hypothesis is not valid at aggregate level in India; when the authors disaggregate exports into merchandise and services exports, the latter has been found to have positive spillover effects on non-export sector of the economy. However, the association between merchandise export and non-export GDP is found to be statistically insignificant. When the authors further disaggregated merchandise exports, the authors observed that primary-product export has a negative association with non-export GDP, but export of manufacturing products found to have a significant positive impact on non-export GDP. Finally, export of petroleum product shows a negative long-run association with non-export GDP, but the association is statistically insignificant.

It is not the case that India can simply increase its exports per se and be sure of witnessing economic growth, but instead it is the composition and the concentration of these exports that matters.

Women's empowerment is a crucial gender issue and more so in developing countries. Women's empowerment has far-reaching consequences at individual, household, societal and global levels. In this study, the authors focus on the effect of their childhood and pre-marriage conditions on the present level of empowerment in the rural setting in the southern part of India controlling for relevant variables.

This study is based on the primary data collected from 700 women in southern India's villages. The authors used chi-square to understand the bivariate association between the level of women's empowerment and their socio-economic characteristics including their pre-marriage conditions. Further, multiple regression was used to find out the association between her pre-marriage characteristics and empowerment.

The study finds a positive association between mothers' education on their daughters' empowerment. Freedom of movement during childhood also had a positive relationship with the current level of empowerment. The study finds a positive effect of self-esteem and self-efficacy on women's empowerment. The authors also found that property in their names and knowledge about their legal rights were associated with higher empowerment. Other important indicators related to higher women's empowerment are household assets and their employment.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is a unique attempt to study the effect of conditions before marriage on women's empowerment, especially in the Indian context. The study looks into the relationship between childhood conditions of women in a rural set up including their parents' education and jobs, discrimination faced and upbringing conditions and their current level of empowerment.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-05-2022-0329

This study aims to explore economic, social, psychological and political empowerment and dis-empowerment of women caused by microfiance interventions. Women tend to face the brunt of societal discrimination created by economic, social, psychological and political disempowerment. This led to the emergence of the microfinance model for the rural poor and specifically focused on women as an agency for social change.

This study is based on a systemic literature review to examine microfinance-led women empowerment to reduce the ambiguity in theoretical and empirical underpinning.

The study’s findings suggest that even though microfinance as a developmental model is not a runaway success, it did make some positive impact on the status of women.

This study shows that the microfinance program empowers women and reduces societal inequalities to some extent, but literature also suggests that microfinance as a model has failed to make the requisite socio-economic change, and in some cases, there is adverse impact.

The case illustrates an entrepreneurial voyage and venture creation and through it helps in identifying the reasons and causes for that venture's failure. It also enables discussion on the importance of planning a venture, more importantly; financing, managing, growing, and ending a venture and on how to avoid the pitfalls that befall such enterprises. This case can be used in Entrepreneurship courses as well as MBA, PGP and Executive Education programmes on Entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of a major retailer’s transition to omnichannel retailing (OCR) from an existing multichannel retailing (MCR) base. Using the illustrative case of Seven & I (S&I) Holdings, the paper positions OCR in terms of its goal to provide added customer value through a seamless brand experience.

The research uses a case study methodology, based on a series of in-depth interviews. Executives at S&I were interviewed as the core of the case, and supporting interviews were carried out with executives at Yamato Transport, Inditex Japan and Rakuten. Data collected in interviews were cross-referenced to industry and trade press reports, providing an illustration of the motivation and strategic decisions behind the transition to OCR, and of factors that have direct impact on the implementation of the model.

The results illustrate the difficulty in achieving OCR in terms of unifying customer experience across multiple channels. The case demonstrates the potential for cross-channel integration through multiple, but integrated touchpoints, and the leveraging of existing multichannel retail infrastructure and systems. In addition to confirming previous conceptual understanding of the transition process, the core findings demonstrate the importance of the strategic implementation process, the importance of the retailer’s brand portfolio and brand management, and the need to adjust and leverage existing facilities and infrastructure.

The study is limited by the single case employed, although the complexity of OCR implementation does not take away from the practical implications in a broader sense. It could be argued that the Japanese retail industry has some differences to other markets, but the customer-orientated nature of S&I’s implementation, and its aim to leverage existing infrastructure, is illustrative for similar strategies of retailers elsewhere in the world.

The study has value to both researchers and practitioners as a structured synopsis of an actual case of transition, and adds to the literature that relates to OCR and to Japanese distribution. It demonstrates not only the need for robust supply chain, logistics, IT, marketing and retail infrastructure, and integration across distribution systems, but also the importance of the retailer’s brand portfolio, which may need significant adjustment to best promote added customer value. The success of S&I is predicated on both the high population densities, characteristic of the Japanese market, and a strong, longstanding MCR base. Similar systems and implementation issues apply to other markets that operate under similar conditions.

The social implications of the paper relate to the fact that, although the transition to OCR may be a difficult, costly, and time-consuming proposition for a retailer, increasingly consumers are coming to expect both informational and purchasing options for brands to be available as, when and where they want them. The 24-7 nature of omnichannel also generates significant challenges in terms of work volumes and environmental impact. These issues are touched upon this paper.

This paper provides a case of a major and well-known retailer and the transition process towards an OCR model, of which there are currently few case studies available. It also adds significantly to the body of literature relating to Japanese distribution and provides insights into strategy not generally known in the English-speaking world.

Despite the susceptibility of cotton crops to pest attacks in the Malwa Region of Indian Punjab, no crop insurance policy has been implemented there– not even the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), which is a central scheme. Therefore, this paper attempts to gauge the likely impact of the PMFBY on Punjab cotton farmers and assess the changes needed for greater uptake and effectiveness of PMFBY.

The authors have conducted a primary survey to conduct this study. Initially, the authors compared the costs of cotton production with the returns in two scenarios (with and without insurance). Additionally, the authors have applied a logistic regression framework to examine the determinants of the willingness of farmers to participate in the crop insurance market.

The study finds that net returns of cotton crops are conventionally small and insufficient to cope with damages from crop failure. Yet, PMFBY will require some modifications in the premium rate and the level of indemnity for its greater uptake among Punjab cotton farmers. Additionally, using the logistic regression framework, the authors find that an increase in awareness about crop insurance and farmers' perceptions about their crop failure in the near future reduces the willingness of the farmers to participate in the crop insurance markets.

The present study looks for the viability of PMFBY in Indian Punjab for the cotton crop, which can also be extended to other crops.

Punjab could also use crop insurance to encourage diversification in agriculture. There is a need for special packages for diversified crops under any crop insurance policy. Crops susceptible to volatility due to climate-related factors should be identified and provided with a special insurance package.

There exist very scant studies that have discussed the viability of a central crop insurance scheme in the agricultural-rich state of India, i.e. Punjab. Moreover, they do not also focus on crop losses accruing due to pest and insect attacks.

Microcapsule-embedded autonomic healing materials have the ability to repair microcracks when they come into contact with the crack by releasing the healing agent. The microcapsules with specific shape and thickness effect in releasing healing agent to the cracked surfaces. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to know the load bearing capacity of the self-healing microcapsules and the stresses developed in the material.

In the present study, self-healing microcapsule is modelled and integrated with the polymer matrix composite. The aim of the present study is to investigate failure criteria of Poly (methyl methacrylate) microcapsules by varying the shell thickness, capsule diameter and loading conditions. The strength of the capsule is evaluated by keeping the shell thickness as constant and varying the capsule diameter. Uniformly distributed pressure loads were applied on the capsule-reinforced polymer matrix composite to assess the failure strength of capsules and composite.

It is observed from the results that the load required to break the capsules is increasing with the increase in capsule diameter. The failure strength of microcapsule with 100 µm diameter and 5 µm thickness is observed as 255 MPa. For an applied load range of 40–160 N/mm² on the capsules embedded composite, the maximum stress developed in the capsules is observed as 308 MPa.

Failure strengths of microcapsules and stresses developed in the microcapsule-reinforced polymer composites were evaluated.