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Despite the severe impact of the COVID-19, Maldives was one of the top destinations which witnessed decent tourist arrival amid the pandemic. This study aims to analyze luxury hospitality experiences of guests amid COVID-19 pandemic.

This study is exploratory in nature. This study analyses 4,302 real-time customer reviews using sentiment and thematic analysis with the help of NVIVO 12 plus and Leximancer.

The findings suggest travel products as well as services associated with luxury resorts needs to be revisited. Staff needs to be more professional and must be proactive while redesigning services specially in situations like pandemic. While redesigning services in situations like pandemic, staff needs to be proactive, professional and must follow all protocols. Major negative experiences included long waiting time to avail frill services, privacy intrusion by bloggers and influencers, service quality issues. We recommend enhancing service quality followed by investing more in training and development, increasing the number of foreign languages spoken by staff and disseminating localized culinary experiences will enhance the experience quality with guests.

This study has several limitations: first, this study limited itself to 15 luxury resorts of Maldives, which may not serve as a true representation of all luxury resorts of Maldives. The next limitation of this study is that the authors have collected customer reviews from TripAdvisor only, and the reviews were only in English language.

The findings of the research can be beneficial for the policymakers, hospitality practitioners and academicians who study luxury tourism industry to carve appropriate strategies for enhancing the customers’ luxury experience like leveraging customization in all areas and enhancing service quality, food quality, training and development of employees.

Maldives has become one of the most expensive traveler destinations and is home to world’s most expensive resorts. This study is original in nature and has a forward-looking approach which studies the disruptive effect of pandemic, intangible nature of luxury as a concept can be used by hospitality industry to redesign the luxury customer experience which can improve marketing strategies aiming to potentiate this niche. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study will be the first one to capture the real customer experiences of luxury resorts of Maldives.

This study aims to investigate the effects of peers on corporate payout policies in one of the largest emerging markets – India. It also examines the motives for mimicking payout decisions.

The sample is composed of 3,024 non-financial and non-government firms listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for the period 1995 to 2020. To encounter the endogeneity problem, the instrumental variable technique based on peer firms' idiosyncratic risk is used to estimate the effects of peers on firms' payout policy. To define peer reference groups, the authors use the basic industry classification of the firms.

The results indicate a significant positive impact of peers on firms' dividend policies in India. A firm with all dividend-paying peers is more likely to declare dividends than the one with no dividend-paying peers. Further, peer effects are found to be more pronounced amongst larger and older firms, thus supporting the rivalry theory of mimicking.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, the present study is the first of its kind that attempts to understand peer effects on payout decisions in an emerging market India, that offers a unique institutional setting. Moreover, the authors extend the existing literature by investigating the peer effects on a firm's payout policies considering various firm-level characteristics, such as growth opportunity, cash holding, financial constraint and profitability, which previous studies have not taken into consideration. These results provide additional insights into the heterogeneity and motives behind peer effects.

This study investigates the effects of elements of corporate governance along with firm specific variables on the financial leverage of listed Indian firms in the context of agency conflicts and new governance laws.

A series of panel ordinary least squares as well as fixed/random effects regression models of book and market value of financial leverage on variables of corporate governance (board size, board composition, board meeting, board attendance and board gender) along with a set of control variables (asset tangibility, firm size, growth, liquidity and profitability) were estimated by employing 113 listed Indian firms during 2010–2021. Dynamic panel generalized method of moments models were also estimated to check the robustness of empirical results. Further, the full sample of firms was divided into small and large board sized companies using the median approach to investigate differences between small and large board characteristics on financial leverage.

The evidence predominantly suggested that the governance variables have significant impact on leverage ratios of selected firms. Governance variables such as board size, composition, attendance and gender are significantly found to be reducing the financial leverage of firms indicating that in general these attributes in a way, through monitoring managers, put pressure on them to pursue lower financial leverage. Board meeting is found to be positive and significantly related with financial leverage suggesting that the frequency of meetings signals its monitoring ability that may influence lenders' risk assessment lowering borrowing cost. The results on small and large board sized companies indicate that firms with small boards relatively issue more debt compared to firms with large boards suggesting that small boards adopt high debt policy.

The main policy implication of the study is that elements of internal corporate governance is a significant governance tool that has the potential to reduce agency conflict between the managers and agents through monitoring and decision making that has tangible effects on critical corporate decisions such as capital structure choices.

This paper contributes to the existing literature by bringing new evidence relating to agency conflicts and capital structure decisions in an emerging market like India post adoption of new regulations related to corporate governance specified in Clause 49 of Securities and Exchange Board of India and Companies Act, 2013 as there is significant dearth of such empirical work.

This study aims to develop a hierarchical model that uncovers the relationships between challenges confronting Africa's organ transplant supply chain systems.

Eleven challenges (variables) were identified after a comprehensive review of the existing literature. The contextual interactions among these variables were analysed from the perspectives of health-care stakeholders in two sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries (Nigeria and Uganda), using Delphi-interpretive structural modelling-cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) techniques.

The findings reveal that weak regulatory frameworks, insufficient information systems and a lack of necessary skills make it challenging for critical actors to perform the tasks effectively. The interaction effects of these challenges weaken organ supply chains and make it less efficient, giving rise to negative externalities such as black markets for donated organs and organ tourism/trafficking.

This paper establishes a solid foundation for a critical topic that could significantly impact human health and life once the government or non-profit ecosystem matures. The MICMAC analysis in this paper provides a methodological approach for future studies wishing to further develop the organ supply chain structural models.

The study provides valuable insights for experts and policymakers on where to prioritise efforts in designing interventions to strengthen organ transplantation supply chains in developing countries.

This study is one of the first to empirically examine the challenges of organ transplant supply chains from an SSA perspective, including theoretically grounded explanations from data collected in two developing countries.

Financial integration has played an essential role in achieving economic growth in the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). However, its effects on economic growth in the region in the long run have been underexamined. This paper examines these effects for the ASEAN member countries.

A fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) estimation is used to take into account two critical econometric issues in panel data analysis, including (1) cross-sectional dependence and (2) slope heterogeneity. The dynamic ordinary least squares estimation is also used for robustness analysis. The authors use the generalized least squares estimation to examine the effects in the short run.

This study’s empirical results confirm the important role of financial integration to economic growth in the ASEAN countries in the short term. However, the effects appear to disappear in the long term. The authors also find capital, labor, and human development positively contribute to economic growth in the region. International trade plays a significant role in supporting economic growth in the ASEAN in the short run. However, its effect seems to weaken in the long run.

The growth effects of financial integration in the ASEAN region in the long term have largely been neglected. As such, the authors examine these effects using updated data on financial integration. The authors extend this study’s analysis by considering foreign direct investment and financial depth as the alternative proxies for financial integration. Other estimation technique is also used as the robustness check.

Fintech plays a prominent role in augmenting the financial inclusion of the population and increasing the money supply, which calls for the intervention of monetary policy. This article is an attempt to examine the relationship between the financial inclusion, fintech and monetary policy effectiveness of the Indian economy, within the framework of wealth creation and transmission mechanism through the cost of capital.

On the quarterly data retrieved from multiple sources, autoregressive distributed lagged regression is used to examine the relationship between different variables as explained in four set models; after which the Toda–Yamamoto causality test is employed to capture the direction of the relationship.

The study finds a positive relationship between financial inclusion, fintech and inflation taken as a proxy for Monetary Policy Effectiveness (MPE) in the short as well as in the long run. However, the relationship between fintech and inflation is negative once the cost of capital is included in the models. The causality test exhibits the uni-directional causality from fintech to MPE and MPE to financial inclusion. Bi-directional causality exists between wealth and MPE. Similarly, bank rate and interbank rate are bound by bi-directional causality.

Being financially included facilitates ease and boosts public access to more financial services and credit, leading to increased demand and hence inflation. Hence government and regulators need to take mindful measures to enhance the fintech development and financial inclusion to make the monetary policy effective.

As per the author's best knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between fintech, financial inclusion and monetary policy effectiveness in the context of the Indian economy.

This will not be an overstatement to state that the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) industry is crucial and the vital driver of the world economy. It covers different fields and dimensions such as defense products, electrical components and low-cost products. The sector plays a vital role in rendering work with low capital expenditure and is one of the emerging pillars of the Indian economy. Given the significance of this sector in contributing towards India's gross domestic product (GDP), it becomes appropriate to resolve all the issues related to MSME on a primary basis for ensuring required support. The recent global pandemic of COVID-19 has impacted this sector to a great extent. This research study targets the MSME industry and points out the directly linked enablers adding to improve the sector's resiliency and sustainability. Therefore, identification and the interrelationship between the MSME enablers need to be studied, which helps make a preliminary list that deals with their impedance benefaction towards resiliency increment.

The writers have done a comprehensive literature analysis of the enablers for the MSME sector to enable effectively and efficiently during emergencies and pandemics. An endeavor has been made on the enablers to order them by utilizing the modified Total Interpretative Structure Modelling (m-TISM) technique. Authentication of this research work highlights the significance of enablers and their position in a hierarchical structure. Further, MICMAC investigation on the recognized enablers is performed to arrange them in the four quadrants on their dependence and driving power.

The authors have attempted to predict the significance of the MSME sector and its essential contribution to the development of India's economy. The result of m-TISM in the current research work revealed the essential commitment of a hierarchical design dealing with the MSME considering the viewpoint of future development. The well-planned traditional design in the MSME helps establish better government policies and programs and transport infrastructure.

Every research study has a few restrictions. Likewise, the boundaries of the current study are that inputs collated for fostering the models are from a few specialists that may not mirror the assessment of the whole MSME sector.

The MSME sector is the developing sector in the current day, and it is needed to keep supporting the sector for the country's development. The current study has set out the functional establishment to improve MSME practicality. In addition, the research highlights the accountability of the MSME authorities to go with the identified enablers having solid driving power for successful usage of the available resources. This will help the MSME development and add value to practitioners and policymakers in the future.

The growth of this sector is essential for the development of the economy and the development of a nation. The current study presents a unique structure that gives a superior comprehension of the enablers. It will help play a crucial role in developing the MSME area. The structure model developed with the assistance of m-TISM and MICMAC examine the identified enablers with inputs from experts in the field. The hierarchy developed from the study recognized the enablers located on their commitment of suitability development of the MSME field.

The extant literature underlines the inadequacies of legal and policy frameworks addressing the safety and health concerns of sandstone mineworkers in India. Notably, Rajasthan, a state renowned for its extractive industries, mirrors these concerns. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to critically evaluate the relevant legal and policy landscape, with an emphasis on the recent central statute: the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code of 2020 (OSHWCC). Given that the Code subsumes the key legislation pertaining to the safety and health of mineworkers, an in-depth critical analysis is essential to forge suitable policy interventions to address continued gross violations of human rights.

The critical analysis of legal and policy frameworks on silicosis in sandstone mineworkers is based on a comprehensive reading of existing literature. The literature includes relevant laws, case law, reports of the Rajasthan State Human Rights Commission and National Human Rights Commission, publicly available data and key scholarly contributions in the field.

Although the OSHWCC has made some changes to the existing regulatory architecture of mines in India, it has failed to safeguard the safety and health of mineworkers. Notably, the vast majority of mines in India – constituting approximately 90%, which are informal, seasonal and small-scale – remain beyond the jurisdiction of this Code. In Rajasthan, there are specific policies on silicosis, but these policies are poorly implemented. There is a serious shortage of doctors to diagnose silicosis cases, leading to under-diagnosis. The compensation for silicosis victims is insufficient; the distribution mechanism is complex and often delayed.

The central and many state governments have not established the regulatory institutions envisaged under the OSHWCC 2020; therefore, the working of the regulatory institutions could not be critically examined.

The paper critically evaluates laws and policies pertaining to silicosis in sandstone mineworkers, with a special emphasis on the state of Rajasthan. It offers a comprehensive critique of the OSHWCC of 2020, which has not received much attention from previous studies.

The primary objective of the paper is to examine the asymmetric Cointegration and asymmetric causality between financial development and poverty alleviation on annual data in Indian context over the period from 1980 to 2019.

First nonlinearity test by Brooks et al. (1999) is applied to ascertain the nonlinear behavior of the variables used. Once the nonlinear behavior of variables is confirmed, asymmetric and nonlinear unit root tests by Kapetanios and Shin (2008) are applied to check for the order of integration of selected variables. Next, nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model (NARDL) is employed to analyze the asymmetric Cointegration. Finally, Hatemi-j- asymmetric causality tests is applied to work out the direction of asymmetric causality.

The empirical findings document the existence of asymmetries in the short-run as well as long-run between poverty and financial development. The asymmetry reveals that negative financial development shocks leave a more profound impact on poverty alleviation than their positive equivalents. The findings of Wald's test also confirm the presence of asymmetric Cointegration. The asymmetric cumulative dynamic multipliers used to examine the behavior of asymmetries and adjustments with respect to time lend credence to the results calculated using NARDL estimator. This result exhibits the robustness of the model. Furthermore, the result emanating from recently introduced asymmetric causality test reveals a unidirectional asymmetric causality between negative shocks in financial development and poverty. The findings of the present study necessitate the need for investigating asymmetric and nonlinear effects in finance–poverty nexus, which existent literature has completely neglected, in order to have relevant policy conclusions.

The study used “Per capita consumption expenditure” as a measure for poverty due to lack of continuous time series data on headcount ratio. In future, researchers can extend this study by incorporating headcount ratio as a measure of poverty in their respective works. There is further scope of research on this issue by finding out the impact of formal and informal sources of credit on poverty separately. A panel data study for developing countries over a period of time could further confirm/negate the findings of the present study.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge none of the studies in Indian context has scrutinized asymmetric and nonlinear impact of financial development on poverty. To dredge up asymmetric structures at work, the authors have used the highly celebrated NARDL estimator. To enrich the existent body of knowledge along the lines of asymmetric (nonlinear) linkages, the authors have also used recently introduced asymmetric causality test by Hatemi-j-(2012) to find out the direction asymmetric causality.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between dividend policy and the life cycle of firms in India. In addition, this study intends to examine the variation in dividend behaviour over the life cycle of a firm. The study anticipates that a firm's dividend behaviour varies over its life cycle.

To scrutinize the validity of the proposition, the authors classify 1968 non-financial industrial firms listed at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) into growth, mature and stagnant firms over the period 2000–20. Additionally, to check the robustness of the results, they use an array of techniques such as analysis of variance, pooled ordinary least squares, fixed effects models and random effects models.

The empirical findings suggest that dividend behaviour varies over a firm's life cycle. Specifically, stagnant firms are paying significantly higher dividends than growth firms. Mature firms are paying significantly higher dividends than growth firms. The results are consistent after controlling the effects of firm's size, profitability, leverage, operating risk, systematic risk and growth opportunities.

The findings are useful for corporate decision makers in establishing an appropriate dividend policy conditional on firms' life cycle stage and for shareholders in making investment decisions.

The relation between dividend policy and firm life cycle has not been examined before in the context of Indian stock market. Thus, this research bridges this gap in the literature.