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Globalization has increased the consumer's demand for safe and quality foods. To make food available to consumers from farm to fork, packaging plays a crucial role. The objective of packaging is to shield the foodstuff from degrading and to serve as the medium of communication between the processing industry and the consumers. Conventionally, several materials are used in the packaging such as laminates, plastics, glass, metal, etc., but with the advent of technology, newer and novel smart packaging technologies have entered this field. Smart packaging in the form of active and intelligent packaging not only acts as a barrier to external influences but also prevents internal deterioration. Oxygen scavengers, moisture controllers, antioxidants, CO₂ absorber/emitter, antimicrobial agents, etc., are some of the vital active packaging systems. On the other hand, an intelligent packaging system contains internal or external indicators and sensors that monitor the condition of packed food and gives information about its quality during storage and transportation. It seems that these interventions in packaging have very positive effects on the whole industry, but it is observed that this advancement in the packaging has also raised questions about its disposal. To overcome this issue, industries have started using smart packaging design along with the sustainable packaging trend. Communication with the recycling bodies at the time of development will ensure the smart packaging fit to be recycled. Considering such standards for smart packaging will not only create a healthy bond between industries and consumers but will also help in sustainable development. This chapter mainly focuses on the advancement of the packaging system associated with the agri-food sector. It also discusses how the implementation of these technological advancements will help the industries toward sustainable development.

The case describes the dilemma faced by Meera Nair, chief manager at PhoenixWay – a consultancy firm that has successfully grown over the years. There is a silent conflict in the personalities, work styles and attitude of Meera Nair and Mohit Dubey, her contemporary looking after client relationships. Nair finds inconsistencies in the words and actions of Dubey that have started to impact the work and motivation of her team. Her unsuccessful attempts to draw the attention of their boss Shekhar Sinha to these variances have left her unsure and demotivated. Sinha overlooks Dubey's fallacies and shows no signs of paying attention to the discrepancies and contradictions.

This study prioritizes the supply chain risks (SCRs) and determines risk mitigation strategies (RMSs) for the Indian apparel industry to mitigate the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic disruption.

Initially, 23 SCRs within the apparel industry are identified through an extant literature review. Further, a fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) is utilized to prioritize the SCRs considering the epidemic situations to understand the criticality of SCRs and determine appropriate RMSs to mitigate the shock of SCRs during COVID-19.

This study prioritized and ranked the SCRs within the Indian apparel industry based on their severity during the COVID-19 disruption. Results indicate that the demand uncertainty and pandemic disruption risks are the most critical. Based on the SCRs, the present work evaluated and suggested the flexibility and postponement mitigation strategies for the case under study.

This study has novel implications to the existing literature on supply chain risk management in the form of the FAHP framework. Supply chain practitioners from the other industrial sectors can extend the proposed FAHP framework to assess the SCRs and identify suitable mitigation strategies. The results aid the practitioners working in an apparel industry to benchmark and deploy the proposed RMSs in their firm.

The present study is a unique and earlier attempt to develop a quantitative framework using FAHP to evaluate and determine the risk mitigation strategy for managing the SCRs during the coronavirus epidemic.

This study aims at reviewing the articles on the themes of manufacturing strategy (MS) published in “Benchmarking: An International Journal (BIJ)” and investigating the trends of publication for future research.

Five-stage methodology to conduct a literature review is adopted comprising: (1) article collection, (2) inclusion/exclusion criteria, (3) reviewing the articles, (4) analyzing the articles and (5) future research directions. A total of 57 articles specific to MS domain published in BIJ are reviewed. Further, a bibliometric analysis comprising keywords co-occurrence, citation and co-citation using a VOSviewer© software followed by content analysis to analyze the type of research, type of industry and type of tool/method used is carried out.

The study helps to find the scope of the journal and research gaps in the MS domain to provide future research directions. Most of the work found is survey-based or case-based in nature. However, there is a need for empirical research to be done in the field of MS.

The study facilitates researchers willing to publish in BIJ to understand different themes of accepted papers concerning MS domain. The identified research gaps and future research direction can motivate researchers and practitioners to coin new approaches in the MS domain.

A comprehensive review and analysis of the MS literature published in BIJ has been provided. To the best of authors' knowledge, the current study is the only review study in MS domain focusing on one specific journal.

Environment concerns and climate changes have led organizations to reorient their processes with a focus toward sustainability. Organizations recognize that incorporating greening in HR practices has the potential to address environmental concerns. The present study aims to focus on investigating the relationship between green human resource management (GHRM) practices and environmental performance (EP). It is premised that the adoption of green human resource practices facilitates the development of a green organizational culture (GOC) that helps the organization to gain strategic business advantage with respect to the competitors. The literature suggests that the adoption of green human resource practices among organizations is at a nascent stage. The present study focusses on understanding the mediating role of three dimensions of GOC, that is, degree, diffusion and depth in the relationship between green human resource practices and EP that has not been addressed in the empirical literature.

The present study developed a model consisting of GHRM practices as an independent variable, the three dimensions of culture (degree, diffusion and depth) as mediators, and EP as the dependent variable. The study followed a quantitative exploratory research approach. The sample consisted of 278 employees from private and public sector organizations located in India. The hypothesized model was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The study found the green human resource practices to be significantly related with EP of the organization. Results of parallel mediation confirmed that the “degree” dimension of GOC played a significant mediating role in the relationship between green human resource practices and EP of the organization. The other two dimensions of GOC, diffusion and depth, did not have a significant mediating role in this relationship. The findings of the study have been explained in the context of social identity theory, resource based view and ability–motivation–opportunity theory.

The study provides practical insights for researchers and managers who seek to adopt sustainability objectives in the organization. The findings have the potential to encourage human resource managers to adopt green human resource management practices toward promoting a culture of greening in the organization. The importance of developing and measuring EP targets for industry leadership is also emphasized.

The originality of the study lies in classifying and understanding GOC in terms of three dimensions, that is, degree, diffusion and depth, following the model proposed by Harris and Crane (2002). The three dimensions help in assessing the current level of GOC. This assessment promotes the judicious application of resources by the organization and adopts green practices to foster the organizational EP.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of mobile applications on investment decisions by retail investors in stocks and mutual funds. This study focuses on how mobile technologies are applied on mobile apps by retail investors for e-trading in emerging financial markets.

The study explored predictive relevance for the adoption behavior of retail investors under the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework. Further, goal contagion theory was applied to investigate the adoption behavior of investors towards e-trading. An adapted questionnaire was used to collect the date from April to June 2021 and data analysis was performed on 507 usable responses. The methodology adopted in this study is variance based partial least square structural equational modelling (PLS-SEM). Additionally, the study explains important and performing constructs based on the response of retail investors towards mobile app usage for investment decisions.

The study shows that effort expectancy, performance expectancy followed by perceived return were the primary determinants of behavioral intentions to use mobile applications by retail investors for e-trading. Further, habit of investors determined the adoption behavior of investors towards mobile apps. Additionally, the study revealed that perceived risk is not an important aspect for retail investors in comparison to perceived return.

The study in future can address to the aspect of personality traits of retail investors for technology adoption for investment decisions. Further investigation is required on addressing unobserved heterogeneity of retail investors towards technology adoption process in emerging financial markets.

The study provides theoretical and practical implications for retail investors, financial advisors and technology companies to understand the behavioral pattern and mobile apps adoption behavior of retail investors in emerging financial market. The findings in the study will help broking firms to sensitize their clients for effective use of their respective mobile apps for e-trading purposes. The study will strengthen the knowledge of financial advisors to understand investment behavior of retail investors in emerging financial markets.

This study unfolds a novel framework of research to understand the technology adoption pattern of retail investors for e-trading by mobile applications in emerging financial markets. The present study provides significant understanding in the domain of technology adoption by retail investors under behavioral finance environment.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and standardize nutrient dense, easily digestible and affordable ready-to-eat supplementary foods from locally available ingredients for malnourished children and to assess their nutritional composition.

To develop supplementary foods, wheat and green gram were germinated, dried and made into flour. Potatoes of “Kufri Pukhraj” variety procured from university were washed, peeled, sliced, boiled, dipped in potassium metabisulphite solution, dried and grounded into flour. Spinach leaves were washed, dried and made into powder. Five wholesome ready-to-eat supplementary foods, namely, panjiri, mathi, seviyan, biscuits and pinni, were developed from germinated cereal, pulse and potato flour and spinach leaves powder. The products were standardized with potato flour and spinach leaves powder. The developed products were analyzed for proximate composition by standardized methods.

One-way analysis of variance and Tukey’s test was used to obtain differences in organoleptic scores within different levels of treatments. All five supplementary foods were acceptable at 30 per cent level of potato flour and 2.5 per cent level of spinach leaves powder. Mean scores of panjiri, mathi, seviyan, biscuits and pinni were significantly different (p < 0.05). Significant (p < 0.05) difference was observed in terms of moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude fibre and ash content among the developed products.

The developed ready-to-eat supplementary foods can be recommended for supplementary feeding programmes running in the country.

The paper aims at the development of high energy protein supplementary foods for malnourished children. The developed complementary food blend is made up of variety of food groups like cereal, pulse, root and tuber and green leafy vegetables to provide wholesome nutrition to children. This is different to originally provided supplementary foods to children made up of only cereal. The developed products also add a variety to supplementary foods given to malnourished children in supplementary feeding programmes.

The present research study aims to explore the impact of the most recent Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which unfolded in October 2023, on global equity markets, including a wide range of both emerging and developed markets (as per the Morgan Stanley Capital Investment country classification).

The market model of event study methodology, with an estimation window of 200 days and 28-day event window (including event day, i.e. October 7, 2023), has been employed to investigate the event’s impact on the stock markets of different countries, with 24 emerging countries and 23 developed countries. The daily closing prices of the prominent indices of all 47 countries have been analyzed to examine the impact of the conflict on emerging markets, developed markets and overall global equity markets. Additionally, cross-sectional regression analysis has been performed to investigate the possible explanations for abnormal returns.

The findings of the study suggest the heterogeneous impact of the selected event on different markets. Notably, emerging markets and the overall global equity landscape exhibited substantial negative responses on the event day, as reflected in average abnormal returns of −0.47% and −0.397%, respectively. In contrast, developed markets displayed resilience, with no significant negative impact observed on the day of the event. A closer examination of individual countries revealed diverse reactions, with Poland, Egypt, Greece, Denmark and Portugal standing out for their positive or resilient market responses. Poland, in particular, demonstrated significantly positive cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) of 7.16% in the short-term and 8.59% in the long-term event windows (−7, +7 and −7, +20, respectively), emphasizing its robust performance amid the geopolitical turmoil. The study also found that, during various event windows, specific variables had a significant impact on the CARs.

The study suggests diversification and monitoring of geopolitical risks are key strategies for investors to enhance portfolio resilience during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This study identifies countries such as Poland, Egypt, Greece, Denmark and Portugal with positive or resilient market reactions, providing practical insights for strategic investment decisions. Key takeaways include identifying resilient markets, leveraging opportunistic strategies and navigating market dynamics during geopolitical uncertainties.

As per the authors’ thorough investigation and review of the literature, the present study is the earliest attempt to explore the short-term and long-term impact of the 2023 Israeli–Palestinian conflict on equity markets worldwide using the event study approach and cross-sectional regression analysis.

The present study aims to comprehensively examine the impact of the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) takeover of Credit Suisse on the banking and financial services sector in the Indian stock market. To fully comprehend the impact of the event, the study separately investigates the response of private sector banks, public sector banks, overall banking companies and financial services companies to the takeover of the second-largest financial institution in Switzerland.

The study employs event study methodology, using the market model, to analyze the event's impact on Indian banking and financial services sector stocks. The data consists of daily closing prices of companies included in the Nifty Private Bank Index, Nifty PSU Bank Index, Nifty Bank Index and Nifty Financial Services Index from the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Furthermore, cross-sectional regression analysis has been conducted to explore the factors that drive abnormal returns.

The empirical findings of the study suggest the event had a heterogeneous impact on the stock prices of Indian banks and financial services companies. While public sector banks experienced a significant negative impact on select days within the event window, the overall Indian banking sector and financial services companies also witnessed notable declines. In contrast, Indian private sector banks were relatively resilient, exhibiting minimal effects. However, the cumulative effect is found to be insignificant for all four categories across different event windows. The study also observed that the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) were significantly influenced by certain variables during different event windows.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, the present study is the earliest attempt that investigates the impact of the UBS takeover of Credit Suisse on the Indian banking and financial services sector using event study methodology and cross-sectional regression model.