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The purpose of this paper is to share the perspective of CEO and Vice Chairman of Hexaware Technologies, P.R. Chandrasekar, while exploring the question, “Does South Asia matter?”

The paper followed an interview format and utilized P.R. Chandrasekar's responses to guide and inform the discussion on South Asia.

This paper found that South Asia does matter, and always has.

This paper offers the perspective of a CEO of a multinational corporation with global experience and vast knowledge of the South Asian region. His first‐hand experiences add much value to the discussion on South Asia.

This paper aims to investigate the feasibility of developing an eco-friendly dyeing process for a regenerated polyester fiber (polytrimethylene terephthalate) using a natural dye (Lac) and bio-mordant.

The effects of temperature, time, initial pH of dye bath, material to liquor ratio and mordant concentration on color strength of polytrimethylene terephthalate fiber dyed with Lac were examined. The results were compared using three bio-mordant (catechu, myrobalan and pomegranate) and three inorganic mordant (alum, ferrous sulfate and stannous chloride). Single replicate of 25-design methodology was used to identify three significant factors affecting color strength, and optimization was done using response surface methodology based on 2³-central composite rotatable design.

Color strength achieved using catechu as a bio-mordant was close to that with ferrous sulfate and higher than with stannous chloride. Temperature, initial pH and mordant concentration were identified as significant factors affecting color strength of dyed fiber with catechu. Optimization revealed temperature of 133OC, initial pH of 6 and bio-mordant (Catechu) concentration of 10 per cent to be the optimal conditions for dyeing, with K/S value of 4.55.

The study revealed the possibility of satisfactory dyeing of regenerated polyester fibers with natural dyes, replacing disperse dyes. The comparison of color strength achieved indicated the possibility of replacing inorganic mordant with bio-mordant in such dyeing process. The dyeing process could thus be made more eco-friendly by removal of toxic chemicals from effluents.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existence and global exponential stability of periodic solution of memristor-based recurrent neural networks with time-varying delays and leakage delays.

The differential inequality theory and some novel mathematical analysis techniques are applied.

A set of sufficient conditions which guarantee the existence and global exponential stability of periodic solution of involved model is derived.

It plays an important role in designing the neural networks.

The obtained results of this paper are new and complement some previous studies. The innovation of this paper concludes two aspects: the analysis on the existence and global exponential stability of periodic solution of memristor-based recurrent neural networks with time-varying delays and leakage delays is first proposed; and it is first time to establish the sufficient criterion which ensures the existence and global exponential stability of periodic solution of memristor-based recurrent neural networks with time-varying delays and leakage delays.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an algorithm, using PCA‐based neural network, to retrieve the vertical rainfall structure in a precipitating atmosphere. The algorithm is powered by a rigorous solution to the plane parallel radiative transfer equation for the atmosphere with thermodynamically consistent vertical profiles of humidity, temperature and cloud structures, together with “measured” vertical profiles of the rain structure derived from a radar.

The raining atmosphere is considered to be a plane parallel, radiatively participating medium. The atmospheric thermodynamic profiles such as pressure, temperature and relative humidity along with wind speed at sea surface and cloud parameters corresponding to Nargis, a category 4 tropical cyclone that made its landfall on May 2, 2008 at the Republic of Myanmar, are obtained by solving the flux form of Euler's equations in three‐dimensional form. The state‐of‐the‐art community software Weather Research and Forecasting has been used for solving the set of equations. The three‐dimensional rain profiles for the same cyclone at the same instant of time are obtained from National Aeronautics and Space Administration's space borne Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission's precipitation radar over collocated pixels. An in‐house Micro‐Tropiques code is used to perform radiative transfer simulations for frequencies corresponding to a typical space borne radiometer, and hence to generate the database which is later used for training the neural network. The back propagation‐based neural network is optimized with reduced number of parameters using principal component analysis (PCA).

The results show that neural network is capable of retrieving the vertical rainfall structure with a correlation coefficient of over 0.99. Further, reducing the ill‐posedness in retrieving 56 parameters from just nine measurements using PCA has improved the root mean square error in the retrievals at reduced computational time.

The paper shows that combining numerically generated atmospheric profiles together with radar measurements to serve as input to a radiative transfer model brings in the much‐required synergy between numerical weather prediction, radar measurements and radiative transfer. This strategy can be gainfully used in satellite meteorology. Using principal components to reduce the ill‐posedness, thereby increasing the robustness in retrieving vertical rain structure, has been attempted for the first time. A well‐trained network can be used as one possible option for an operational algorithm for the proposed Indian climate research satellite Megha‐Tropiques, due to be launched in early 2011.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the synergistic impact of marketing orientation (MO) and strategic orientation (SO) on business performance (BP) and to explore role of entrepreneurial qualification (moderating) and SO (mediating) in MO and BP relationship.

Nine hundred small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) owners/managers operating in Jammu District, North India, are contacted during October 2013 to February 2014.

The study identifies and confirms MO (marketing strategy, customer philosophy, operational efficiency and integrated marketing) and SO (defensive, proactive, analytical and risk-averse) as multi-dimensional constructs. Although both orientations have positive impact on SMEs performance, however, their synergistic impact is weak. In addition, the study also reveals that MO has direct and indirect impact (through SO) on BP. Lastly, there exists moderating role of entrepreneurial qualification between MO and SO.

The major limitation of the study is the focus on SMEs. Based on the strength of the relationships among the dimensions and sub-dimensions of the MO, SO and BP, replication and validation of research in service sector across the country and globe is required to generalise the results and to develop stronger theory.

This is the first empirical study to investigate the synergistic impact of two well-established notions – MO and SO. It provides empirical evidence for the claim that synergistic impact of marketing and SO on BP is weak, unlike their respective strong impact on BP. This study also clarifies roles of entrepreneurial qualification and SO in MO and BP relationship.

The purpose of this paper (editorial) is to provide a balanced contextual overview of several South Asian countries, in order to present their relevance in international business research.

The author argues that South Asia offers a rich context for studying and advancing international business theory and practice.

South Asia presents an interesting paradox; where dynamism and growing challenges (of poverty, corruption, inadequate governance and extremism) exist side by side. The author also discusses that using South Asia as a context of the study is likely to add relevance and rigor to international business theory, therefore addressing the recent calls by many scholars.

Countries in South Asia are under‐researched by many accounts. Hence an exploration of business and management issues is likely to expose phenomena that have the potential to advance international business theory and practice.

This editorial highlights the regional importance of South Asia in international business research. It places South Asian Journal of Global Business Research, with its emphasis on South Asian economies, organizations, diaspora and people, as an important journal for developing a body of knowledge relating to South Asian business practices, deepening our understanding of South Asia, broadening our view of international business theory and research, identifying new phenomena, exploring indigenous methodological tools and increasing the output of research focused on the region that appears in and also has an impact on global research.

Present and possible future developments in the techniques of document management are reviewed, the major ones being text retrieval and scanning and OCR. Acquisition, indexing and thesauri, publishing and dissemination and the document management industry are also addressed. The emerging standards are reviewed and the impact of the Internet is analysed.

“Passage to India”, in spite of encountering some difficulties and limitations, could be a worthwhile endeavour. India is an attractive foreign market for Western business firms. The market Size is substantial and the growth is impressive. The author provides additional observations and guidelines for companies considering doing business in India.

The purpose of this study is to attempt to provide an insight into the individual aspects of academic entrepreneurship, defining a series of entrepreneurial profiles and investigating the challenges associated with each specific role as well as their impact on firm's performance.

The presented findings are based on the analysis of secondary and primary data. First, a series of articles and reports regarding academic entrepreneurship have been accessed in order to define the research framework. Second, primary data were collected through semi‐structured interviews conducted with 26 academic entrepreneurs working in UK biotech firms.

The analysis of data revealed that academics choose mainly three forms of academic entrepreneurship: founder‐manager of an entrepreneurial firm; project manager in an existing firm; or scientific advisor to the board of directors of one or several firms. In each of these three situations, the personal responsibilities, the level of implication and the performance impact of the academic entrepreneur are different.

Findings demonstrate a direct relation between the specific responsibilities associated with the three types of academic entrepreneurship and the scientific/research performance of the investigated firms. Unfortunately, the small sample does not permit generalizations at industry or national level. Future studies should, on one hand, increase the field of investigation, in order to develop reliable measurements of academic entrepreneurship performance; and, on the other hand, collect additional qualitative information using a case study approach.

The findings may provide useful information for academic entrepreneurs working in the biotech sector, regarding the specific challenges and positioning of each entrepreneurial role, allowing them to take better professional decisions.

The study enriches the existing literature on academic entrepreneurship, expanding the definition and the profile of entrepreneurial roles to include also intrapreneurship activities in medium‐size or larger organizations.

One of the major functions of marketing strategy is the proper positioning of the company in the sectorial value‐added chain, in order to create the best possible competitive advantage. This process is extremely important, especially for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), since any wrong decision can literally eliminate the company from the market. This paper attempts to analyse and present the strategic positioning process specific to small and medium‐sized biopharmaceutical firms in the UK. After discussing the specific characteristics of the value chain in the biopharmaceuticals sector, the paper presents the research methodology used to collect primary and secondary data. Data analysis leads towards a theoretical model that describes the stages and the factors influencing the strategic positioning of SMEs in the value‐added chain of the biopharmaceuticals sector.