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Throughout history, pandemics have played a significant role in reshaping human civilizations through mortalities, morbidities, economic losses and other catastrophic consequences. The present COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to its knees resulting in overstretched healthcare systems, increased health inequalities and disruptions to people’s right to health including life-saving routine immunization programs across the world.

This is a commentary paper.

Immunization remains one of the most successful, safe, cost-effective and proven fundamental disease prevention measures in the history of public health. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has effectively thrown the world's immunization practices out of gear, depriving approximately 80 million infants, in rich and poor countries alike, at risk of triggering a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases such as diphtheria, measles and polio. It is estimated that each COVID-19 death averted by suspending immunization sessions in Africa could lead to 29-347 future deaths due to other diseases including measles, yellow fever, polio, meningitis, pneumonia and diarrhoea.

The value of implementing robust immunization policies cannot be underestimated. Risks associated with postponing immunization services and the fact that COVID-19 is now an integral part of human civilization have resulted in several countries making special efforts to continue their immunization services. However, critical precautionary measures are warranted to prevent COVID-19 among healthcare service providers, facilitators, caregivers and children during the immunization sessions.

A qualitative study can help in understanding the unpolluted perspectives of key stakeholders involved in the vaccination practices and can explore vital factors that could influence vaccination-related behaviors and their utilization. This study aims to document the perceptions of caretakers, community members and healthcare service providers related to childhood vaccination practices in slums under the national immunization program (NIP) of India.

This was a qualitative community-based cross-sectional study. Focus group discussions with caretakers, community members and healthcare service providers were used to build a holistic, detailed description and analysis of the factors associated with childhood vaccination practices within its real-world context.

Lack of awareness, fear of adverse events following immunization, inappropriate timing of vaccination sessions, loss of daily earnings, migration, lack of good behavior of health staffs, shortage of logistics and vaccines, limited resources and infrastructures and high expectations of beneficiaries were some of the vital barriers impacting vaccination practices in slums.

Though this study provides significant good information on the indicators that can be considered to improve the vaccination practices in any slum settings, it has is also a limitations too due to its setting. Therefore, one needs to be cautious while generalizing these results to other settings like rural. In addition, Though we believe that these strategies could be useful in any setting, it is also important to tailor these observations them as per the need of the society and the population. Also, this is a self-reported qualitative study and therefore the perspectives reported in this study need to be taken with caution. Further, low vaccination, poor awareness, compromised healthcare services, high expectations could be considered as a stigma/fear among the responders and therefore there is always a chance of underreporting. Thus, it would be important in future to conduct a study involving a broader group of people in society and to establish factors associated with the vaccination coverage. that can help in improvement of vaccination.

Initiatives such as regular interactions at different levels, effective communication including reminders, behavior interventions, the continued supply of vaccines and logistics, additional resources for the vaccination program, incentives and recognition, extended sessions and people-friendly healthcare delivery system could be helpful to strengthen the routine vaccination practices in slums.

The courses prominent in this context are: social media marketing, integrated marketing communication, internet marketing. For the students of internet marketing, the case may be focussed on understanding the dynamics of social media marketing.

The case shall be administered among students pursuing their post graduate degree in management.

The case reflects the importance of social media marketing and various successful campaign activities led by Mumbai Indians. It highlights how companies can connect with audience vide social media that provides instant feedback and direct connection with the target audience. The strategic frame that can be used to organize the campaign has been suggested by the authors in teaching notes, besides evolving the metrics to evaluate the success/effectiveness of such campaigns. The case evaluated social media campaigns and identified best-suited channel.

The case may be focused on understanding the dynamics of social media marketing. Management students would have a huge learning in terms of how social media campaigns are developed and effectiveness of social media campaigns. The case explains the metrics to evaluate the success/effectiveness of such campaigns. The case evaluated social media campaigns and identified best-suited channel which would be a learning for student studying online marketing.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

The case is intended to be used by post-graduate students of Management in the courses of Marketing Management and New Product Management. This case may also be used in other courses like Consumer Behaviour and Strategic Marketing.

Indian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector set to reach an astonishing INR165.62 trillion (US$3.6 trillion) by 2012 gave a tremendous opportunity to Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) to establish its footprint in all consumer packaged products. Dove, a brand of HUL, primarily catering to the premium segment of the market, launched Dove Elixir Hair Oil in November 2012 priced at INR185 (US$3.41) for 90 ml. This was five times higher than any other light hair oil in the market. The case brings out facts that describe market situations at that time and questions if a substantial market at higher end, for Dove hair oil, was available.

This case has been documented to help students understand the concept and applicability of brand extension strategy. The students shall learn the dynamics of this strategy in the market by answering the following questions: What are the factors that contributed to the growth of FMCG market in India? Evaluate HUL's decision to extend the brand Dove into other product categories? Was the market for Dove hair oil available at the higher end? What strategies should Dove use for its hair oil?

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Marketing.

The case is intended for students pursuing post-graduate program in management and studying courses like marketing, brand management and product management.

This case discusses marketing decisions taken by Royal Enfield Motors Ltd for its popular motorcycle brand Enfield. Starting from the genesis of the brand and the company, this case deliberates the stage when it faced the dilemma of whether to shutdown, sell-off or revive the business. The situation was the outcome of unfavourable environmental forces and inappropriate strategies adopted by the company. This case notes how the company evolved its marketing mix to revive the brand.

The case study has been documented with the aim of helping students to: understand the making of an aspirational brand, analyse how a static offer and positioning can become obsolete in a dynamic marketplace, appreciate how pertinent marketing-mix improvements may lead to the revival of a decaying brand and company, learn about the risks associated with entering into a new market segment at the cost of an existing segment, analyse the viability of the business strategy in light of the competition from international players.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Performance appraisal (PA) is one of the most indispensable human resource management practices as many critical decisions regarding employees’ performance are heavily based on the PA results as they are responsible for various attitude-related outcomes. This study aims to investigate the relationship between PA justice and affective commitment (AC) of employees in the Indian banking sector, and to examine the moderating effects of age and gender on this relationship.

A total of 298 employees from the banking sector were randomly selected to examine the relationship between PA justice and AC along with the moderating role of age and gender on this relationship through structural equation modelling using AMOS 21.

The findings of the study supported hypothesized relationships as PA justice significantly predicted the AC of bank employees in India. The moderating effects of age and gender on the relationship of PA justice and AC are found to be high for older employees and female employees, respectively.

As the present study was cross-sectional, so any inferences regarding causality are limited. Theoretical and managerial implications have been discussed in the context of banking sector.

The paper contributes new insights to the existing literature by examining the moderating effects of age and gender on the relationship of PA justice and AC in the context of Indian banking sector.

Across industries, firms want to adopt data-driven decision-making (DDDM) in various organizational functions. Although DDDM is not a new paradigm, little is known about how to effectively implement DDDM and which problem areas to focus on in these functions. This study aims to enable start-ups to use DDDM in human resources (HR) by studying five HR domains using a narrative inquiry technique and aims to guide managers and HR practitioners in start-ups to enable data-driven decisions in HR.

This study adopts the narrative inquiry technique by conducting semi-structured interviews with HR practitioners and senior members handling HR functions in start-ups. Interview memos are thematically analyzed to identify repeated ideas, concepts or elements that become apparent.

The study findings indicate that start-ups need to have canned operational reports with right attributes in each of these HR domains, which members should use when performing HR tasks. Few metrics, like cost-to-hire in recruitment, distinctly surfaced relatively higher in importance that each start-up, should compute and use in decision-making.

Managers, HR practitioners and information technology implementation teams will be able to consume the findings to effectively design or evaluate HR processes or systems that empower decision-making in a start-up.

Start-ups have a fast-paced culture where creativity, relationships and nimbleness are valued. Prevalent decision models of larger organizations are not suitable in start-ups’ environments. This study, being cognizant of these nuances, takes a fresh approach to guide start-ups adopt DDDM in HR and identify key problem areas where decision-making should be enabled through data.

Virtual teams are characterized by short social exchanges and a lack of para-verbal and non-verbal communication. This poses several challenges to virtual leaders. This study aims to decode the role of leadership and understand its impact on engaging geographically dispersed teams. This research offers a comprehensive view of idealized influence and inspirational motivation – the two sub-factors of transformational leadership which defines the charisma of a leader in leveraging engagement of virtual employees. It also studies the impact of effective leadership communication and trust between team members in engaging employees working in virtual teams.

This research is a mixed method study. Phase I of qualitative study (10 FGD) facilitated phase II of quantitative study. A questionnaire was developed to reflect themes that emerged from qualitative phase. The focus of the qualitative study was to understand the role of leaders viewed by virtual employees in the context of engagement. A cross-sectional data of 300 respondents from eight different industries was gathered using a survey questionnaire. Purposive non-probability sampling technique was used. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling, SmartPLS 3 software.

Results showed that leaders play a significant role in engaging virtual employees. The transformational leadership behaviour with a purview of idealized influence and inspirational motivation positively engages employees in virtual teams. The findings emphasize that trust between team members impacts engagement, and trust mediates the relationship between leadership communication effectiveness and engagement of virtual employees.

Positive leadership behaviour such as transformational leadership helps create an environment of trust and engagement that is experienced by a team working distantly. Leader plays a critical role to foster an engaging environment that boosts the potential of every employee. Organizations invest a lot of money, time and resources in leadership and communication training. This study could help organizations in training their managers/leaders for adapting their leadership style that suits the virtual work environment. Organizations can also pay attention to the required skill sets of people while hiring and/or promoting leaders who have to lead virtual employees.

The exponential increase in virtual working has necessitated decoding essential leadership skills to engage the virtual workforce. Working virtually is psychologically a different experience and hence requires a separate study. The lack of proximity and face-to-face conversations in virtual teams increases the complexity of leading and thus alters the engagement equation. This paper explores the impact of leaders in enhancing employee engagement and that is presented in a condensed manner.

The purpose of the paper was to assess the functional properties vegetable gourds & the validated health claims so as to help the future researchers to locate the gaps. However, emphasizing on the scientifically available reports was required to make information available in a nutshell to the health-conscious consumers, as well as the researcher from the area of functional foods and nutrition.

The paper is a mini-review of scientific findings in different studies on gourd vegetables. The approach to information collection was finding the research gaps and potential areas for future work with a nutritional perspective.

Ash gourd, bitter gourd and bottle gourd have been extensively studied, and several health benefits and functional components have been reported, while ridge gourd, snake gourd and pointed gourd have been sparsely studied for their therapeutic benefits and the validation thereof; hence, there lies a scope for researchers.

The scarcity of scientific reports compared to the traditional usage and folkloric beliefs was a limitation.

Understanding the nutritional potential of gourd vegetables from scientific reports may influence both the work areas and consumers in the appropriate direction.

Additive manufacturing (AM) promises to reduce the weight of the component, it is required to be shown that the mechanical performance of AM parts meets stringent industrial design criteria. Very few studies are made on finite element analysis (FEA) of the component produced by AM for real-life workload conditions. This study is supposed to do FEA of the wheel hub, manufactured using metal three-dimensional (3D) printing, under static multi-load conditions and effect of infill pattern on maximum stress, deformation and factor of safety.

This study conducted FEA on wheel-hub using Ansys. The approach of Orthotropic properties is used to do static analysis of wheel-hub and compared results of different metal 3D printing material (Ti-6Al-4V and Al-Si10-Mg) with hexagonal and triangular infill patterns.

Ti-6Al-4V with Honeycomb patterns shows better results in all cases and can be replaced with standard conventional material.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, it is required to do an experimental study.

Metal components with applications across the automobile industry can be manufactured using AM technology. With the help of AM, components with high strength to weight ratio can be manufactured.

This paper fulfils the identified need of FEA of the component produced by AM for real-life workload conditions. This study is supposed to do FEA of the wheel hub, manufactured using metal 3D printing, under static multi-load conditions and Effect of infill pattern on maximum stress, deformation and factor of safety.