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The Resilient Corporation survives adversity by refusing to follow the pack.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically study the impact of product patent regime on the productivity of different categories such as ownership, R&D, size and product-wise of Indian pharmaceutical firms using non-parametric data envelopment analysis.

The present study has applied Ray and Desli’s Malmquist productivity index and its decomposition to measure total factor productivity (TFP) change, pure technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change and technical change under variable returns to scale (VRS) technology assumption for 141 Indian pharmaceutical firms during 2000-2001 to 2014-2015.

The study found the negligible impact of product patent regime on productivity. The technological change has played a positive role in the growth of productivity, whereas technical efficiency change depicts the judicious utilization of resources for improving performance. From the results, it is found that R&D intensive firms depict better stability in the TFP than the non-R&D firms. However, Granger causality between R&D and productivity found no relationship. Productivity is more directly affected by investment in fixed assets rather than in R&D, which focusses on incremental value additions in a largely branded/plain generic product market. In case of ownership, private foreign firms found to have registered progress in TFP while others have recorded marginal regress, which probably could be attributed to the superior marketing and management skills of the foreign firms, besides possessing proprietary technology. Both small and large firms have shown positive growth in the new regime as compared to the pre-patent regime. These small firms are able to compete with large firms because of their up-gradation of the technological base by improving access to better foreign technology. TFP growth for all the firms can be attributed to improvement in technology, and innovation in terms of high capital-output ratio. Further, the paper tried to identify the determinants of productivity from panel random effect regression, and it is found that export intensity, age and the new patent regime have negative and significant relationship with productivity, whereas other variables such as R&D, ownership, size and capital imports are insignificant. In the end, the results of sensitivity analysis have confirmed the validity of the selected variables.

The results suggest that Indian pharmaceutical firms need substantive improvement in TFP by improving managerial and scale efficiency. Indian pharmaceutical industry (IPI) needs to improve productivity across the network and drive cost excellence initiatives across the spend base through operational excellence and digital initiatives. The results of this paper can be applied in framing policies for future growth and improvement in the productivity of IPI.

The paper aims to make several new contributions to the existing literature. Most of the research papers only analysed TFP of the industry as a whole and detailed firm-wise analysis is needed to capture the true impact at a unit level. This study has analysed the impact of different categories such as ownership, R&D, size and product-wise, and determinants of productivity. The study has used a broader time period and larger panel data to predict the better picture.

Pharmaceutical industry is one of the sunrise industries in the Indian manufacturing sector. It has flourished in the recent past. This chapter makes a comparative analysis of the productivity growth of Indian pharmaceutical industry using production function approach and adopting two distinct measures of labour input and also explains whether the growth and productivity is eco-friendly or not. Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) data is considered as data base and the time period 1980–1981 to 2016–2017 is considered which is sub-divided into four periods (1980–1981 to 1989–1990; 1990–1991 to 1999–2000; 2000–2001 to 2009–2010; and rest of the period). The pattern of result for both the measures are more or less in the same direction. A remarkable growth in total factor productivity (TFP) is observed after the initiation of new economic policy for both the method used. So far as the environmental issues are concerned, this industry seems to have been polluting the environment, as per unit use of energy is increasing over time.

Almost every study undertaken by academicians or practitioners on the Internet of Things (IoT) has mainly highlighted the privacy concerns and information security issues with the IoT products. On the contrary, this paper aims to explore the motivators that could encourage customers of an IoT product to share their IoT product’s data with a third-party aggregator system to facilitate computer-generated product reviews which are defined as electronic Word of Thing (eWOT) in this paper.

An experiment was conducted with customized e-commerce prototypes of eWOT. Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test the measurement model by using confirmatory factor analysis and thereafter a structural model to test the relationships amongst the latent variables.

This paper found that five consumer motivators (personal innovativeness, enjoyment of helping, anticipated extrinsic rewards, moral obligations and venting negative feelings) contribute to eWOT intention.

This research advances the understanding of human interaction with computer-generated product reviews and opens up avenues for future studies in online consumer behavior in the IoT context.

This paper presents motivators for eWOT intention to share IoT product data. This is done through a novel concept of an experimental IoT-based prototype, namely, eWOT. These eWOT reviews can be generated from the IoT products data by applying analytics and using natural language generation. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study has been conducted on this subject.

The economic value generated by a firm is determined by the efficient management of its resources within a given business environment. The Indian pharmaceutical industry is highly competitive and has attracted huge investments in research and development (R&D), including financing of biotechnological ventures, clinical trials, contract research activities in addition to traditional product development and filing of regulatory requirements. This study aims to identify the specific resources that are significant drivers of performance.

Data analysis uses panel regression based on an extended version of the Cobb-Douglas production function, where the dependent variable firm performance is measured using annual sales whilst the independent variables include labour, capital, R&D investments and marketing efforts. This study uses data spanning a period of 7 years (2012–2018) collected from 151 Indian pharmaceutical firms.

Contrary to the general understanding that R&D investments tend to create profitable opportunities, it is observed that R&D expenditures have a negative impact on sales in the short to medium time period. This study also highlights the finding that in addition to the positive impact of labour and capital, marketing efforts are more likely to have a greater positive influence on firm performance than R&D.

The uniqueness of the paper lies not only in the counterintuitive findings but also in the methodology used to capture the impact of the lagged effect of R&D investments on firm performance. Specifically, a regression model-based both on panel data and time-series averages is used to examine the said impact.

Organizations are continually improving their practices to improve operational performance. They already employ Lean Manufacturing techniques (LM) to reduce unnecessary waste. Industry 4.0 techniques enhance operational performance in association with LM. Despite the proven benefits of LM principles and the advancements offered by Industry 4.0 technologies, many organizations struggle to integrate these approaches effectively. This research paper explores how LM principles can be combined with Industry 4.0 technologies to provide valuable guidance for businesses looking to adopt lean automation strategies.

A systematic literature review on LM and Industry 4.0 was done to investigate the possible technical integration of both methods. Ninety-two articles are extracted systematically from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. This study states a systematic literature review, including quantitative analysis of bibliographic networks and cluster analysis, to identify emergent ideas and their further implementation.

The research findings highlight the positive impact of integrating lean production with Industry 4.0 techniques, benefiting organizations in achieving their goals. A lean automation integration framework is proposed based on the literature review and the findings.

This study provides industry administrators and practitioners valuable guidance for enhancing organizational productivity. These implications can provide businesses with competitive advantages, enhance customer satisfaction, and enable them to adapt to the dynamic demands of the contemporary business environment.

This literature review study has substantially contributed to the technological integration of lean and Industry 4.0. The work has also identified potential emerging areas that warrant further research.

This article aims at - exploring and prioritizing the barriers to adoption of digitization in supply chains (SCs), categorizing them into sustainability triple bottom line (STBL) based upon their direct impact and suggesting digital technologies to address each barrier.

A five-phase methodology is used which consists of an exploration of 44 barriers to the adoption of digitization in SCs, analysis of 44 barriers for mean, standard deviation and Cronbach alpha based on questionnaire-based feedback of 25 experts, extraction of 10 most significant barriers through 05 experts, followed by categorization of the barriers into STBL referring to their direct impact on STBL, prioritization of ten barriers using Fuzzy Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution and recommendation of digital technologies to address each barrier.

While all the barriers considered in this study significantly impede the adoption of digitization in SCs, lack of top management commitment (B1) is found to be most crucial while lack of culture toward use of information and communication technology required for digitization (B3) has minimum impact. Large investment in digital infrastructure (B6), difficulty in integration of cyber physical systems (CPSs) on varied platforms (B8) and lack of experts having knowledge of digital technologies (B2) are equally important barriers requiring more attention while adopting digitization in SCs.

This study is mainly based on feedback from 25 seasoned experts; a wider cross section of experts will give more insight.

The outcomes are very significant for organizations looking to adopt digitization in their SCs. Simultaneous consideration to all the barriers becomes impractical hence prioritization of same will be useful for the SC managers to benchmark their preparedness and decide strategies for the adoption of digitization with due consideration toward the impact of barriers on STBL. The digital technologies recommended will further aid in planning the digital strategies to address each barrier.

A unique approach to explore, analyze, prioritize and categorize the barriers to adoption of digitization in SCs is used to provide a deeper understanding of factors deterring the same. It implies that a supportive top management along with systematic allocation of finances plays a crucial role. The importance of availability of digital experts for integrating CPSs on a single platform is also highlighted. The digital technologies recommended will further assist the organizations toward adoption of digitization in SCs with due consideration to STBL.