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This chapter discusses and investigates the sustainability reporting across different sectors. The first section discusses and investigates the relationship between sustainability reporting and primary sector's performance (Agriculture and Food Industries Sector and Energy Sector). The second section discusses and investigates the relationship between sustainability reporting and secondary sector's performance (Manufacturing Sector). The final section discusses and investigates the relationship between sustainability reporting and tertiary sector's performance (Banks and Financial Services Sector, Retail Sector, Telecommunication and Information Technology Sector, and Tourism Sector).

This study aims at investigating the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) on corporate financial performance (CFP) in firms headquartered in developed versus emerging countries. Drawing upon stakeholder and legitimacy perspectives, the authors argue that the CSR/CSI–CFP relationship differs depending on the home-countries’ level of economic development as this reflects their different sensitivity to sustainability. Indeed, as emerging economies are normally characterized by weaker regulations, they are likely to place lower pressures on companies for superior CSR practices. Therefore, the authors expect the effect of CSR on CFP to be more positive for firms headquartered in advanced than in emerging countries. At the same time, the authors propose a more negative relationship between CSI and CFP for firms headquartered in developed countries due to the higher overall sustainability expectations required to gain legitimacy. The empirical analyses, run on a sample of 1,971 publicly listed firms between 2010 and 2020 from developed and emerging economies, support the expectations, thus confirming that country-specific contextual factors do play a role in shaping both the positive and the negative impact of CSR and CSI on CFP, and that the reactions of stakeholders to responsible and irresponsible behavior are stronger when their sensitivity to sustainability is higher.

Introduction: This study investigates the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on the sustainability of the supply chain. It investigates how modern supply networks and procedures were equipped for such a catastrophe, and the pandemic’s effects on the environment, highlighting the significance of studying resilience and sustainability concurrently.

Purpose: The study acknowledges the importance of environmental sustainability for businesses and the need to examine trends in organisational, customer, policy, and distribution networks.

Need for the Study: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted supply chains. This study aims to provide insight into the long-term repercussions of the crisis and the importance of incorporating environmental considerations.

Methodology: The study uses a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply networks and environmental sustainability indices. Data from industry reports, governmental publications, polls, and qualitative research techniques have been gathered.

Findings: The results of this study advance our understanding of how to preserve supply chains in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the need for enhanced resilience and sustainability measures, expose the flaws and weaknesses of contemporary supply networks, and uncover developing patterns and tactics in customer behaviour, policy frameworks, distribution networks, and supply chain management.

Practical Implications: The COVID-19 pandemic has provided businesses, decision makers, and researchers with guidance on handling its potential and challenges – increasing the supply chain’s resistance to future interruptions, incorporating environmentally friendly practises, developing policies to support resilient and sustainable supply chains, adapting to changing consumer tastes, increasing effectiveness, and minimising the environmental impact of distribution networks.

This study aims to determine experimentally factors affecting the satisfaction of retail stock investors with various investor protection regulatory measures implemented by the Government of India and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Also, an effort has been made to gauge the level of satisfaction of retail equities investors with the laws and guidelines developed by the Indian Government and SEBI for their invested funds.

To accomplish the study’s goals, a well-structured questionnaire was created with the help of a literature review, and copies of it were filled by Punjabi retail equities investors with the aid of stockbrokers, i.e. intermediaries. Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Mohali-area intermediaries were chosen using a random selection procedure. Xerox copies of the questionnaire were given to the intermediaries, who were then asked to collect responses from their clients. Some intermediaries requested the researcher to sit in their offices to collect responses from their clients. Only 373 questionnaires out of 1,000 questionnaires that were provided had been received back. Only 328 copies were correctly filled by the equity investors. To conduct the analysis, 328 copies, which were fully completed, were used as data. The appropriate approaches, such as descriptives, factor analysis and ordinal regression analysis, were used to study the data.

With the aid of factor analysis, four factors have been identified that influence investors’ satisfaction with various investor protection regulatory measures implemented by government and SEBI regulations, including regulations addressing primary and secondary market dealings, rules for investor awareness and protection, rules to prevent company malpractices and laws for corporate governance and investor protection. The impact of these four components on investor satisfaction has been investigated using ordinal regression analysis. The pseudo-R-square statistics for the ordinal regression model demonstrated the model’s capacity for the explanation. The findings suggested that a significant amount of the overall satisfaction score about the various investor protection measures implemented by the government/SEBI has been explained by the regression model.

A study could be conducted to analyse the perspective of various stakeholders towards the disclosures made and norms followed by corporate houses. The current study may be expanded to cover the entire nation because it is only at the state level currently. It might be conceivable to examine how investments made in the retail capital market affect investors in rural areas. The influence of reforms on the functioning of stock markets could potentially be examined through another study. It could be possible to undertake a study on female investors’ knowledge about retail investment trends. The effect of digital stock trading could be examined in India. The effect of technological innovations on capital markets can be studied.

This research would be extremely useful to regulators in developing policies to protect retail equities investors. Investors are required to be safeguarded and protected to deal freely in the securities market, so they should be given more freedom in terms of investor protection measures. Stock exchanges should have the potential to bring about technological advancements in trading to protect investors from any kind of financial loss. Since the government has the power to create rules and regulations to strengthen investor protection. So, this research will be extremely useful to the government.

This work has societal ramifications. Because when adequate rules and regulations are in place to safeguard investors, they will be able to invest freely. Companies will use capital wisely and profitably. Companies should undertake tasks towards corporate social responsibility out of profits because corporate houses are part and parcel of society only.

Many investors may lack the necessary expertise to make sound financial judgments. They might not be aware of the entire risk-reward profile of various investment options. However, they must know various investor protection measures taken by the Government of India & Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to safeguard their interests. Investors must be well-informed on the precautions to take while dealing with market intermediaries, as well as in the stock market.

Stress is the most common emotional or mental state that employees experience during their work. The employees in academics and industry are facing increased levels of stress as they progress through their work. The study aims to investigate the relationship between academic and industry employees’ stress personalities. West Coast psychological consultants Mary Dempcy and Rene Tihista distinguish between the seven various types of stress and offer suggestions to deal with it.

In this study, the authors have built a survey questionnaire using a sample of 195 respondents from the industry and academic of North India and analysed their responses to find their stress personalities at work. The Independent sample t-test approach has been applied to analyse the employee stress personality.

The study finds out that stress is a sophisticated defence mechanism that is unique to each individual and varies depending on the environment. Using employee response of academic and industry, the study covers the essence of seven types of stress for individuals, and that lent good support to the framed hypothesis.

These seven types of stress have importance and different levels to knowing their appropriateness to the individuals and suggest to take necessary action of plan. It shows the individuals feel about stress, how the bodies react to it and how to cope with it are all indicators of the personalities, attitudes and adaptability.

The novelty of this study is to apply Mary Dempcy and Rene Tihista’s stress personalities compared with the two respective categories.

A widespread focus on the plant-based antimicrobial cotton fabric finishes has been accomplished with notable importance in recent times. The antimicrobials prevent microbial dwelling in fabrics, which causes severe infections to the fabric users. Chemical disinfectants were conventionally used in fabrics to address this challenge; however, they were found to be toxic to humans. Thus, the present study aims to deal with the utilization of phytochemical extracts from different parts of Pongamia pinnata as antimicrobial coatings in cotton fabrics.

The root, bark and stem were collected and washed several times using tap water. Then, the leaves were dried at room temperature and the root and bark were dried using an oven at 40ºC. After drying, they were ground into fine powder and extracted with ethanol using the Soxhlet apparatus. After that the extract was coated on the fabric tested for antimicrobial studies.

The results reported that the leaf extract of P. pinnata-coated fabric exhibited enhanced antibacterial property towards gram-negative Escherichia coli bacteria, followed by root, bark and stem. The wash durability test in the extract-coated fabric samples revealed that dip-coating retained antibacterial activity until five washes. Thus, the current study clearly suggests that the leaf extract from P. pinnata is highly useful to develop antibacterial cotton fabrics as health-care textiles.

The novelty of the present work is to obtain the crude extract from the leaves, bark, root and stem of P. pinnata and evaluate their antibacterial activity against E. coli, upon being coated on cotton fibres. In addition, the extracts were subjected to wash durability analysis to study the coating efficiency of the phytochemicals in cotton fabrics and a probable mechanism for the antibacterial activity of P. pinnata extracts was also presented.

The study explores the relationship between workplace spirituality and work stress among university teachers. It also investigates the mediating effect of constructive deviance amid the association between workplace spirituality and stress among Indian university teachers.

The association between spirituality and stress is studied using correlation and multiple regression. The mediating effect of constructive deviance is examined using the Sobel test and bootstrapping estimates using Hayes' PROCESS macro. The hierarchical regression is used to report direct and indirect effects.

Findings reveal a significant negative association between the six dimensions of workplace spirituality and stress. The results also concluded the mediation effect of constructive deviance, which means workplace spirituality promotes constructive deviance that influences educators' stress levels.

The study is based on primary data collected by the author. It is one of the first explorations of the mediating effect of constructive deviance in the relationship of six dimensions of workplace spirituality and work stress among teachers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate surface treatments and fiber types on adhesion properties polylactic acid (PLA) three-dimensional (3D) parts printed on woven fabrics.

The cotton, flax and jute fabrics were exposed to alkali, hydrogen peroxide, stearic acid and ionic liquid treatments to modify surface characteristics before PLA 3D printing. The modification efficiency was assessed with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses. Then, fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer and PLA filament were used for 3D printing onto the untreated and treated fabrics. The adhesion strength between the fabrics and PLA 3D parts were tested according to DIN 53530 via universal tensile tester.

The fabric structure is effective on adhesion force and greater values were observed for plain weave fabrics. Maximum separation forces were obtained for alkali pretreated fabrics among jute and cotton. Hydrogen peroxide treatment also increased adhesion forces for jute and cotton fabrics while decreasing for flax fabrics. Stearic acid and ionic liquid treatments reduced adhesion forces compared to untreated fabrics. Treatments are effective to alter adhesion via changing surface chemistry, surface morphology and fabric physical properties but display different effects related to fabric material.

This study provides experimental information about effects of different fiber types and surface treatments on adhesion strength of PLA 3D parts. There is limited research about comprehensive observation on 3D printing on cellulosic-woven fabrics.

The purpose of this paper is to generate nitrogen-containing groups in the cotton fabric surface via low-temperature nitrogen plasma as an eco-friendly physical/zero-effluent process. This was done for rendering cotton dye-able with Acid Blue 284, which in fact does not have any direct affinity to fix on it.

Dyeing characteristics of the samples such as color strength (K/S), fastness properties to light, rubbing and perspiration and durability, as well as tensile strength, elongation at break, whiteness, weight loss and wettability in addition to zeta potential of the dyed samples, were determined and compared with untreated fabric. Confirmation and characterization of the plasma-treated samples via chemical modifications and zeta potential was also studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Malvern Zetasizer instrumental analysis.

The obtained results of the plasma-treated fabric reflect the following findings: FTIR results indicate the formation of nitrogen-containing groups on cotton fabrics; notable enhancement in the fabric wettability, zeta potential to more positive values and improvement in the dyeability and overall fastness properties of treated cotton fabrics in comparison with untreated fabric; the tensile strength, elongation at break, whiteness and weight % of the plasma treated fabrics are lower than that untreated one; and the durability of the plasma treated fabric decreased with increasing the number of washing cycles.

The novelty addressed here is rendering cotton fabrics dye-able with acid dye via the creation of new cationic nitrogen-containing groups on their surface via nitrogen plasma treatment as an eco-friendly and efficient tool with a physical/zero-effluent process.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the effects of hydrochloric acid (HCl), hydrazine, methyl methacrylate, styrene and hexamethyldisiloxane by radio-frequency (rf) plasma graftings on surface properties of wool and denim fabrics.

During plasma treatments, processing time was varied under optimized plasma conditions (50 W, rf: 13.56 MHz). All fabrics were comprehensively investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and contact angle measurements.

The experimental data shows that the rf-plasma processing has important effect on the wettability properties of wool and denim fabrics. The results indicated that HCl plasma treatment significantly improves the hydrophilicity of wool and denim fabrics.

The research on wool and denim fabric treatment by plasma is original.