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The word “sustainability” is discussed in several ways since MDGs and SDGs have gained business attention. Sustainability is not just about something’s durability; it also looks at how to advance development projects without endangering the development of others nearby, both now and in the future (Fink, 2000). It is a drive that weaves together the different facets, including the social, economic, and environmental. World Economic Forum’s has emphasised the need for responsive and responsible leadership. It is in this context, the paper focuses on studying the transformational shift in the role and responsibility of leaders in demonstrating responsible leadership and discusses the ‘Locust and Honeybee Leadership styles’.

Literature portrays that responsible leaders are recognized by their qualities, competency and skills. One such model is “Locust and Honeybee Leadership,” where the two leadership styles are contrasted. The paper attempts to discuss the varied contexts of these leadership styles and attempts to draw a matrix on the commonalities of both set in an Indian context. A leader should always have openness of thought and integrity.

Value systems are important for a leader. The major challenge is developing globally responsible leaders and managers who can perform effectively under these conditions of enormous challenge, as they are chronically pushed beyond their capabilities into unexpected roles and unfamiliar domains. Situations compel leaders to make decisions, yet the styles determine the way the decisions are taken. The paper is unique as it discusses the commonalities and contrasting perspectives of the “Locust and Honeybee Leadership.”

The paper is limited to a small number of respondents and is set in Indian context.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper is an original piece of work and expresses thoughts of the authors on establishing a sustainable leadership model.

A novel phenomenon in product and service promotions, social coupons facilitate group buying at lower prices, bringing key benefits to customers, merchants and coupon aggregators. This study maps the evolution and innovations in social couponing, identifies knowledge gaps in the domain and sets the future research agenda.

Through a detailed systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis, this study maps the evolution of social coupons over time. The analysis examines social coupon research by studying research outputs by authors, institutes, countries and research themes. It also explores how the social couponing phenomenon has benefited the three key stakeholders: customers, merchants and coupon aggregators.

An innovation in couponing, social coupons are discount coupons that feature group buying, pre-purchase and daily deals. Based on the extensive review of extant literature, the study proposes a conceptual model for the social couponing process. The study also provides inputs for future research on social coupons and delineates their academic and managerial implications.

This study makes a pioneering endeavor to comprehensively map the knowledge structure of social coupons from multiple dimensions.

After completion of the case study, the students will be able to discuss topics such as new venture creation and opportunity sensing, knowledge sharing and employee bonding and the use of social networks in business growth.

This case study focuses on the entrepreneurial journey of Mr Nikhil Methiya, the owner of Dronelab Technology Private Limited, which provides surveying, inspection, agriculture, surveillance and research and development services using drone technologies. This case highlights how Methiya used his minimal resources to grew his business, diversified his activities and developed a sound company profile and work culture to provide the best services to clients. This case also discusses the role of social networks in business growth and expansion, the use of effectuation theory in forming new businesses and the importance of conducting a SWOT analysis to understand a firm’s internal and external environments. Furthermore, this case touches upon the challenges and opportunities of the drone industry in India. It leaves readers in a dilemma should Methiya plan to expand his business to Europe and Africa in the upcoming years. This case study is suitable for postgraduate management students specializing in entrepreneurship and can serve as a valuable resource for the Venture Creation Program’s start-up strategy and execution. The case study’s pedagogy involves discussion-based learning.

This case study can be used in management for an entrepreneurship specialty course. It is ideal for postgraduate students and has a moderate level of difficulty.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Introduction: Skill development is crucial in developing economies by enhancing productivity and creating employment opportunities. At the macro level, it also leads to industrial development and economic growth.

Purpose: The research is to identify the types of skills required for increasing the probability of employability of labour. It also aims to define the challenges and opportunities in skill development to drive change.

Need of the Study: Studying opportunities and challenges for skill development in developing economies is essential for achieving sustainable economic growth, reducing poverty, increasing employment opportunities, and promoting global competitiveness.

Research Methodology: Some skills are recognised through research that has been published to determine the skill set needed to increase labour productivity. To draw lessons, some skill development initiatives by various companies are also identified and presented in case studies. Additionally, several government programs are available to assess the possibilities and prospects for skill development in the Indian market.

Practical Implications: The research will be valuable in micro and macro decision making. At the micro level, research is advantageous for a business person to initiate the skill development of its employees by using government schemes. Nations other than India can understand the policy framework for skill development.

Findings: The term ‘skilling’ has become fashionable. Due to the need for skill-based earnings data, only some studies examine the return on skill (ROS) of the labour market. Skill development plays a significant role in bringing change at the micro and macro levels. Hence it is necessary to exploit all opportunities for skill development.

The purpose of this study is to comprehensively analyse and compare equity crowdfunding (ECF) regulations across 26 countries, shedding light on the diverse regulatory frameworks, investor and issuer limits and the evolution of ECF globally. By addressing this research gap and providing consolidated insights, the study aims to inform policymakers, researchers and entrepreneurs about the regulatory landscape of ECF, fostering a deeper understanding of its potential and challenges in various economies. Ultimately, the study contributes to the advancement of ECF as an alternative financing method for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups, empowering them to access much-needed capital for growth.

The study used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) model for a systematic literature review on global ECF regulations. Starting with 74 initial articles from Web of Sciences and Scopus databases, duplicates were removed and language criteria applied, leaving 42 articles. After a thorough full-text screening, 20 articles were excluded, resulting in the review of 22 papers from 2016 to 2022. PRISMA’s structured framework enhances the quality of systematic reviews, ensuring transparency and accessibility of findings for various stakeholders, including researchers, practitioners and policymakers, in the field of ECF regulations.

This study examines ECF regulations across various countries. Notably, the UK has advanced regulations, while the USA adopted them later through the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act. Canada regulates at the provincial level. Malaysia and China were early adopters in Asia, but Hong Kong, Japan, Israel and India have bans. Turkey introduced regulations in 2019. New Zealand and Australia enacted laws, with Australia referring to it as “crowd-sourced equity funding”. Italy, Austria, France, Germany and Belgium have established regulations in Europe. These regulations vary in investor and issuer limits, disclosure requirements and anti-corruption measures, impacting the growth of ECF markets.

This study’s findings underscore the diverse regulatory landscape governing ECF worldwide. It reveals that regulatory approaches vary from liberal to protectionist, reflecting each country’s unique economic and political context. The implications of this research highlight the need for cross-country analysis to inform practical implementation and the effectiveness of emerging ECF ecosystems. This knowledge can inspire regulatory adjustments, support startups and foster entrepreneurial growth in emerging economies, ultimately reshaping early-stage funding for new-age startups and SMEs on a global scale.

This study’s originality lies in its comprehensive analysis of ECF regulations across 26 diverse countries, shedding light on the intricate interplay between regulatory frameworks and a nation’s political-economic landscape. By delving into the nuanced variations in investor limits, investment types and regulatory strategies, it unveils the multifaceted nature of ECF regulation globally. Furthermore, this research adds value by comparing divergent perspectives on investment constraints and offering an understanding of their impact on ECF efficacy. Ultimately, the study’s unique contribution lies in its potential to inform practical implementation, shape legislative frameworks and catalyse entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging economies, propelling the evolution of early-stage funding practices.

This study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis of sustainable tourism research published in Scopus-indexed journals covering the period from 1997 to 2021. Articles published during these 25 years were subjected to science mapping and performance analysis to propose potential areas for future research.

A bibliometric analysis using performance analysis and science mapping was conducted on 1,754 research papers retrieved from the Scopus database using the keyword “sustainable tourism.” Biblioshiny and VOSviewer are commonly used bibliometric tools. Science mapping techniques use coauthorship, keyword co-occurrence and co-citation analyses.

This study revealed the sustainable tourism publications’ spatial and temporal patterns, indicating a yearly growth rate of 19.9% during a 25-year period. The study identified Stefan Gossling as the most influential author, the “Journal of Sustainable Tourism” as the leading journal and Australia as the most productive country in sustainable tourism literature. The study used co-citation analysis to identify five thematic clusters, namely, reconceptualization and criticism, the role of residents, eco-labeling and the role of stakeholders, community-based tourism and the shift toward establishing sustainability indicators and effective governance and policymaking. The coauthorship analysis identifies the most influential author in collaborative efforts, and the most common pattern of collaboration is between researchers from different institutions in the same country, such as China and the Philippines, followed by collaborations between authors from other countries. The keyword co-occurrence analysis uncovered keywords that aligned with theme clusters generated from the co-citation analysis.

This study comprehensively uncovers five thematic clusters that have never been extracted so far in the literature. Also, it attempts to fill the gaps related to sustainable tourism by suggesting directions for future research.

Cloud computing services gained huge attention in recent years and many organizations started moving their business data traditional server to the cloud storage providers. However, increased data storage introduces challenges like inefficient usage of resources in the cloud storage, in order to meet the demands of users and maintain the service level agreement with the clients, the cloud server has to allocate the physical machine to the virtual machines as requested, but the random resource allocations procedures lead to inefficient utilization of resources.

This thesis focuses on resource allocation for reasonable utilization of resources. The overall framework comprises of cloudlets, broker, cloud information system, virtual machines, virtual machine manager, and data center. Existing first fit and best fit algorithms consider the minimization of the number of bins but do not consider leftover bins.

The proposed algorithm effectively utilizes the resources compared to first, best and worst fit algorithms. The effect of this utilization efficiency can be seen in metrics where central processing unit (CPU), bandwidth (BW), random access memory (RAM) and power consumption outperformed very well than other algorithms by saving 15 kHz of CPU, 92.6kbps of BW, 6GB of RAM and saved 3kW of power compared to first and best fit algorithms.

The proposed multi-objective bin packing algorithm is better for packing VMs on physical servers in order to better utilize different parameters such as memory availability, CPU speed, power and bandwidth availability in the physical machine.

As the global financial ecosystem grapples with the complexities of modernization, blockchain technology emerges as a pivotal catalyst, offering the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) industry unprecedented opportunities for secured digital transformation and enhanced customer trust. To gain a comprehensive understanding of blockchain technology adoption, this study aims to identify the factors and establish the contextual interrelationships among them.

The authors have identified the factors affecting blockchain technology adoption in BFSI industry through extensive literature review and experts’ interviews. After identification of factors, contextual relationship has been established based on experts’ opinion and total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) approach. Furthermore, factors are categorized into autonomous, dependent, linkage and driving variables using cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification analysis.

The TISM-based structural model is divided into eight different hierarchal levels in which Government support is placed on the lower most layer (level 8) which indicates that this is the most crucial factor in blockchain adoption. Further social influence and security are placed on seventh and sixth level in the hierarchy.

The results of this study will help the policymakers to direct the resources from the most crucial factor to other factors in the hierarchy as per their relevance. In essence, this study serves as a guiding compass, steering the course of blockchain technology adoption in the BFSI sector toward a more secure and digitally transformed future.

In the current landscape, blockchain technology remains in its nascent stage, leaving ample room for exploration and innovation. This study stands as the pioneering effort to comprehensively identify and establish the contextual relationships among the adoption factors of blockchain technology within BFSI industry. Through rigorous TISM analysis, this paper enriches the existing body of knowledge on blockchain technology adoption.

India has a distinct family hierarchy and a vertical collectivistic culture. Indian traditional cultural norms discourage young adults from having romantic or sexual relationships before marriage. Romantic liaisons and marriages are fiercely opposed outside the caste and social network. Despite this cultural practice, research in the last decade demonstrated that more young adults in India engage in premarital romantic relationships and prefer a marriage of choice. However, they strongly wish their parents to approve of their partner and arrange their marriage. This increasing trend of love-cum-arranged marriages could be considered how Indian culture adapts to the demands of modernization strongly impelled by globalization. This chapter discusses the dynamics of change in the romantic and marital agency among young adults in India. First, the authors provide a brief historical introduction to the Indian marital system. Then, the authors discuss the changing cultural dimensions that promote marital choice and independence in partner selection (e.g., filial piety). Further, the authors provide an overview of the trends in premarital romantic relationships in India. In addition, the authors discuss the distress and conflict in Indian families due to the increasing premarital romantic and sexual relationships among Indian youth, as evidenced by eloped marriages, forced marriages, and honor killings.

Corona Virus Disease (Covid-19) is a global pandemic that emerged at the end of 2019 and caused disruptions in global supply chains, particularly in the food supply chains that exposed the vulnerability of today’s food supply chain in a major disruption which provided a unique research opportunity. This review explores the current research direction for food supply chain resilience and identifies gaps for future research in preparing for future major global pandemics.

This article presents a review of food supply chain resilience followed a systematic literature review of the business and management-based studies related to the food supply chain in Covid-19 published between December 2019 and December 2021 to identify the immediate issues and responses that need to be addressed in the event of future disruptions in food supply chains due to new global health threats.

The study revealed the need for more literature on food supply chain resilience, particularly resilience to a major global pandemic. The study also uncovered the sequence of events in a major pandemic and identified some strategies for building resilience to potential future risks of such an event.

The limitations of this study are apparent. Firstly, the selection of databases is not comprehensive. Due to time limitations, authoritative publishers such as Springer, Emerald, Wiley and Taylor & Francis were not selected. Secondly, a single author completed the literature quality testing and text analysis, possibly reducing the credibility of the results due to subjective bias. Thirdly, the selected literature are the studies published during the immediate event of Covid-19, and before January 2022, other research studies may have been completed but were still in the state of auditing at this time.

This paper is the first study that provides a detailed classification of the immediate challenges to the food supply chain faced in both upstream and downstream nodes during a major global disruption. For researchers, this clearly shows the immediate difficulties faced at each node of the food supply chain, which provides research topics for future studies.