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This paper aims to review the role of government initiatives for developing clean fuels in India, decarbonize the transport sector and maximize the use of renewable sources of energy. India’s socio-economic prosperity is dependent on modern energy. The authors examine the role of biofuel in India’s emerging fuel mix.

A 20-year timeframe between 2000 and 2021 was set to learn about the subject and find the existing gaps. Of the 40 research papers, the authors found using keywords and delimiting criteria in the database, the authors have shortlisted 21 papers, which provided the theoretical framework for the study. Additionally, the authors used the government database to develop future projections using compound annual growth rate and trend analysis.

The study findings suggest that India should strictly implement the Biofuel Policy to promote indigenous production of biofuel to enhance affordability and accessibility. With blending options available with biofuels and biogas, the country can replace the right proportion of fossil fuel use by 2050. It will not only decrease India’s import dependence but also will create new job opportunities, specifically in tribal and remote locations and promote green energy mix. With emerging options like electric vehicle and hydrogen, the transport sector could be decarbonized to a greater extent.

Indigenous cleaner fuel adoption and transport sector will generate additional employment and cut down fossil fuel import. Financial savings through reduced fossil fuel import will be directed toward social development.

The paper carries out critical analysis for the active use of modern green fuels in the present and coming days. Such unique analysis must help India to balance its energy basket.

This study aims to test a model in which the effect of strategic information technology (IT)-business alignment on organizational agility is examined by the moderating influence of environmental uncertainty.

This research utilizes a matched-pair survey data collected from 300 IT and business executives working in various privately owned Indian financial enterprises, and structural equation modeling is used to examine the alignment–agility linkage.

The analysis demonstrates the positive effect of alignment on agility (studied as business process and market responsive agilities), and alignment is more effective on business process agility than market responsive agility. However, the moderation analysis reveals that in a highly uncertain environment, alignment has more effect on market responsive agility but not on business process agility.

Although previous studies (mostly conducted in the context of developed countries) have reported about the positive IT-business alignment and organizational agility linkage, the literature is silent regarding the influence of external contingent factors on this relationship from a developing country perspective. The authors have conceptualized alignment on the basis of strategic alignment maturity model and meticulously examined its relationship with both categories of agility. This research extends the alignment-agility theory and provides empirical support for this unique association from a developing country (i.e. India) perspective, and thereby, greatly contributes to the alignment literature.

This paper aims to explore the challenges faced by start-ups during COVID-19 and highlight solutions for catering to the new-normal consumer behaviour. The study accounts for 15 deep-tech start-ups sailing through the pandemic and their responsiveness. This study brings forth insights and experiences from the Indian start-up founders and CEOs during COVID-19.

This study uses a qualitative approach and is exploratory and phenomenological. A purposive sample of 15 young start-ups founded between the years 2013–2020 by founders aged between 24 and 41 was selected for the study. The recorded telephonic interview was collected from the founders from April 2021 to September 2021. The thematic analysis of the study evolves from Braun and Clarke (2006) using the MAXQDA 2020.

The study emphasizes upon challenges faced by start-ups, crisis management of start-ups and the relevance of technology-based start-ups during challenging times. This research provides a qualitative framework to establish the role of the technology acceptance model (TAM) towards the adaptability, responsiveness and resilience demonstrated by the start-ups. The findings also highlight the solutions to address challenges faced by start-ups and road to recovery.

The study has great relevance and lessons for budding entrepreneurs during crisis management. The study has implications for corporations and governments in terms of setting up incubators and accelerators to support budding entrepreneurs.

The study is unique in highlighting the relevance and importance of TAM for start-ups during crisis management like COVID-19. The study thrusts upon the need of technology acceptance for better crisis management.

Deriving a measure of efficiency of public-funded organizations (primarily not-for-profit organizations) and ranking these efficiency measures have been major subjects of debate and discussion. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relative performances of public-funded research and development (R&D) organizations functioning across multiple countries working on similar research streams. The authors use multiple measures of inputs and outputs for this purpose.

The authors use the data envelopment analysis (DEA) as the primary methodology of analysis The keywords highlighting the major research areas in the field of non-metrology, conducted by National Physical Laboratory (NPL), India, were utilized to select the global comparators working on similar research streams. These global comparators were three R&D organizations located in the USA and one each located in Germany and Japan. The relative efficiencies of the organizations were assessed with the following output variables – external cash flow, and the numbers of technologies transferred, publications and patents; and the following input variables – amount of grants received from the parent body, and the number of scientific personnel working in these public R&D organizations. The authors follow the output-oriented measure of efficiency at constant return to scale and variable return to scale, along with scale efficiencies.

The performance of NPL, India under multiple dimensions has been evaluated relative to its global comparators – the National Institute for Materials Science, Japan; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA; Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Germany; the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, USA; and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA. The study indicates suggested measures and a set of targets to achieve the best possible performance for NPL and other R&D organizations. In most cases of efficient local but not so efficient global efficiency scores indicate that, on an average, the actual scale of production has diverged from the most productive scale size.

The approach highlights the utilization of the DEA methodology for relative R&D performance assessment of global comparators. The discriminatory analysis has brought into sharp focus the dichotomy between local efficiency and global efficiency scores of these units and issues of scale size and regional disparities. The outcome of this approach is dependent upon correct selection of input and output variables and data availability.

The study results have profound implications for the management of public R&D institutions across nations working on similar-focused research streams, but functioning within different societal, economic, and political contexts.

The present work, being perhaps one of the few multinational studies of relative performance assessment of pubic-funded R&D organizations working on similar research streams, signifies the relevance of such an approach in the field of R&D/innovation management. This has opened up new avenues for further research in this area.

This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of big data analytics (BDA) personnel expertise capabilities in the development of supply chain (SC) agility. Based on extant literature, the study explores the role of BDA technical knowledge, BDA technology management knowledge, BDA business knowledge and BDA relational knowledge in SC agility development. Furthermore, the author also explores the inter-relationships among these four BDA personnel expertise capabilities.

An expert team consisting of IT practitioners (with a minimum experience of five years) were chosen to comment and modify the established scale items of the constructs used in the study. Subsequently, the measures were further pre-tested with 61 students specializing in computer science and information technology. The final survey was mailed to 651 IT professionals with a minimum experience of five years or more in an allied field. Repeated follow-ups and reminders resulted in 176 completed responses. The responses were analysed using partial least squares in SmartPLS 2.0.M3.

Findings suggested that BDA technology management knowledge, BDA business knowledge and BDA relational knowledge are prominent enablers of SC agility. Furthermore, BDA technology management knowledge is an essential precursor of BDA technical knowledge and BDA business knowledge.

The study is the foremost in addressing the importance of BDA personnel expertise capabilities in the development of SC agility. Furthermore, it is also the foremost in exploring the inter-relationships among the BDA personnel expertise capabilities.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

Health-care supply chains must focus on efficient deployment of resources for ensuring optimal supply chain performance. With efficient supply chain (SC) performance, health-care entities would be able to address their patients’ requirements with great speed. This is the essence of health-care agility. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to focus on developing health-care agility through human capital, that is, innovative idea generation capabilities and specialised knowledge possessed by the firm employees. Because information technology (IT) capabilities play a dominant role in information exchange crucial to supply chain operations; the study considered the moderating role of three IT capabilities, viz. outside-in, spanning and inside-out IT capabilities on human capital and health-care SC performance association, and on health-care supply chain performance and health-care agility association.

Because the constructs used in the study mainly deals with issues specifically related to hospitals and their associated supply chains, the study collected perceptual responses from senior hospital managers. Perceptual responses were received through face-to-face interviews with 212 hospital managers working in different hospitals. The collected responses were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

Findings suggests positive influences of human capital on health-care SC performance and health-care agility. Furthermore, health-care SC performance was also found to result in enhanced health-care agility. The study further revealed positive moderation of outside-in, spanning and inside-out IT capabilities on human capital and health-care SC performance association and on health-care SC performance and health-care agility association.

The study addressed the importance of human capital in providing faster services to patients (i.e. agility) in health-care supply chains through improved SC performance. Furthermore, the study addressed the importance of different IT capabilities that enhance the importance of human capital in providing efficient and faster services through efficient SC performance.

With the emergence of COVID-19 and increased infections, organizations urged their employees to work from home. Furthermore, with the on-going pandemic, employees take measures to ensure individual safety and their families. Hence, work from home culture can result in long-term employee satisfaction. However, no study addresses the development of work from the home culture in an integrated framework. Therefore, the current research explores the role of safety during the pandemic, organizational commitment and employee motivation on work from home culture, which may influence employee satisfaction. Furthermore, job demands and home demands were also evaluated for employee satisfaction.

The study used existing scales of the factors to develop the measures and collect perceptual responses from employees working from home, supported with a pre-test. The study executed a survey with effective responses from 132 individuals spread across different sectors to validate the hypotheses. The responses were analysed using partial least squares in ADANCO 2.2.

Findings suggest safety concerns along with organization commitment enhances work from home culture. Such work from home culture enhances employee motivation and employee satisfaction. Furthermore, job demands and home demands also influence employee satisfaction.

To the best of the authors knowledge, the study is the foremost to develop an integrated empirical framework for work from home culture and its antecedents and consequences. The study has several important implications for managers.

Consensus on how intellectual capital (IC) affects corporate performance is limited because of various measurement models of IC and corporate performance. This study thus aims to further the debate on the relationship between IC and corporate performance from the perspectives of nonlinearity, the capital values of IC and the use of a holistic measure of corporate performance.

Using 1,395 firm-year observations derived from Vietnamese listed companies from 2010 to 2018, this study focuses on (1) presenting an IC model benchmarked on value-creating expenses; (2) using a directional distance function (DDF)-based stochastic nonparametric envelopment of data (StoNED) framework to scrutinize multiple performance indicators and the capital values of people, structures and relationships simultaneously; and (3) adopting firm-year cluster-robust regressions to analyze the nonlinear association between IC and corporate performance empirically with an appropriate U test.

Results suggest that human capital (HC), structural capital (SC) and relational capital (RC) are the main contributors of high corporate efficiency, whereas only HC and RC contribute to high corporate profitability. These results are absent when this study employs the conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA), which is also a multidimensional framework, as the dependent variable. More importantly, IC and its components can improve corporate performance, namely, both corporate efficiency and corporate profitability up to a critical point, after which the effects would drop.

Overall, this study highlights not only the need to invest in IC but also its associated costs. That is, policymakers also need to note the marginal cost of investing in IC, which may in the end outweigh the benefits from IC.

This study extends IC-related studies by investigating the nonlinear relationship between IC and corporate performance. Moreover, the value of this study also lies in the multidimensional DDF-based StoNED framework.